Shackleton’s Antarctic Expedition in the Endurance 1914- 1917
Through the paintings of Paola Folicaldi Suh
Within the NZ Ice Fest
With the exhibition Fortitudo, Italian painter Paola Folicaldi Suh brings new life to the dramatic history of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s expedition to the Antarctic in the Endurance during 1914-1917. Folicaldi devoted more than two years to studying the expedition and evoking the spirit and atmosphere through an epic painting cycle. She has worked partly from black and white photographs brought back by Frank Hurley, the expedition photographer, and has succeeded in re-creating the atmosphere, the lighting, and the drama and peril of the expedition in a way never previously achieved. In addition to these reproductions, she has also created original scenes. The exhibition has already been displayed at the Palazzo Buonaccorsi, Macerata, Italy, Clare Hall, Cambridge, UK, and is now landing in New Zealand. The exhibition wants to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the expedition and of the sinking of the Endurance in the ice of the Weddell Sea. Its title derives from the motto of Sir Shackleton’s family “Fortitudine Vincimus – By Endurance We Conquer”.
Paola Folicaldi Suh was born in Fermo, Italy, and lives now in Stockholm. She studied book restoration at the Scuola del Libro in Urbino, and then at the Istituto Centrale della Patologia del Libro in Rome. Artist and painter, she specialises in portraits and paintings with psychological introspection. This is the first time that she has tested her skills with a history of exploration and polar ice. The men’s portraits are in oil on sackcloth, while the panels are painted on tapestry materials, with a mixed technique of oil and tempera.
Opening of the exhibition (in the artist’s presence):
Saturday, 7 October 2017