Antarctic
Adventure No.10 (Antarctic Circles, Boeing 707)
oil on board
Signed ‘Francis I’ lower left
60.5 x 76cm
PROVENANCE
Avenel Bee Gallery, Adelaide
EXHIBITED
Ivor Francis, Avenel Bee Gallery, Stirling, South Australia, 1978, catalogue
number 10
Ivor Francis, an Adelaide Modernist, Sixty Years of Painting, Art Gallery of
South Australia, Adelaide, 1987, catalogue number 63
In November 1977, the seventy-one year old artist took part in a one
day flight
in a Boeing 707 from Adelaide across Antarctica and back. “The event had
a profound effect on him and in the ensuing year he produced a small and very
impressive group of works based on sketches made during the trip. Quite different
from any he had previously painted, the Antarctic series landscapes are full
of sublime atmospheric effect … a supreme sense of tranquillity confirms
again Francis’ interest in a mystical spirituality. They also show a great
change in palette from his multi-coloured one to a range of severe blues and
whites. The works brought together some compelling statements about the strength
of this huge, white barren landscape, full of mysterious shifting planes and
strange geological forms”.
REFERENCE
Hylton, J., Ivor Francis, an Adelaide Modernist, Sixty Years of Painting, Art
Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 1987, page 18
