Week 11: The Visual Interpretation of Antarctica
Image-making in the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic has evolved
over three centuries to become an independent genre. The lectures
will focus mainly on British and Australian two-dimensional
images: painting, drawing, printmaking and photography - to
be considered from an artistic rather than a straight documentary
perspective, although the two are interrelated.
 Download (right click link and choose 'Save') a sample PowerPoint
mini-lecture (2.8 MB, sound) from Lynne Andrews! Note:
If you don't have PowerPoint you will also need the PowerPoint
viewer (zip file, 2 MB, PC only)
Lecture 1: To the Edge: From imagining Antarctica in the
fourth century BC to the art of the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries (Ms Lynne Andrews)
The early explorers make cartographic, topographical and scientific
illustrations as they sail beyond the edge of the known world
and gradually approach the edge of the vast unknown continent.
Notable expeditions and artists are: Cook's 2nd voyage (Hodges
and Forster); the French expedition of Dumont d'Urville; the
United States expedition of Wilkes; the British voyage of
Ross (Hooker); the British Challenger expedition exploring
the new science of oceanography. Coleridge's Ancient Mariner,
the first Antarctic poem, is illustrated by Doré. The
momentous landing on the continent is recorded in a watercolour
by Borchgrevink.
Lecture 2: Light and Darkness: The images of the Heroic Era
(Ms Lynne Andrews)
The increasing use of the camera leads to a peak of achievement
in photography. Light and dark refers to the photographs,
which are predominantly black and white, and also to the extremes
of experience in the Heroic Era such as success and failure.
The photographs by Ponting, Amundsen and Hurley, and the paintings
and drawings by Wilson, Harrisson and Marston will be considered.
Marston's prints illustrate Aurora Australis, the first
book to be created and published in Antarctica.
Lecture 3: Diffusion and Diversity: The art of the contemporary
period (Ms Lynne Andrews)
Freed from the straight documentary requirements, artists
in the latter half of the twentieth century express a stimulating
diversity and individuality, but are also influenced by art
movements such as Abstraction, Minimalism and Postmodernism.
Notable artists are:-British: Edward Seago and David Smith,
and Australian: Nolan, Davis, Caldwell, Maddock, Senberg,
Robertson, Stephenson, Durré and Schmeisser.
Tutorial/Excursion: An exploration of collections of Antarctic images TBA
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