SCOTTISH MARITIME MUSEUM – ‘FORTITUDO’ A Powerful New Art Exhibition Charts Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Legendary Endurance Expedition

Fortitudo By Paola Folicaldi Suh

NOW OPEN 

Scottish Maritime Museum

Irvine Harbourside

A powerful exhibition exploring Sir Ernest Shackleton’s legendary Antarctic expedition aboard the Endurance (1914-1917) has opened at the Scottish Maritime Museum on Irvine Harbourside.

Fortitudo by Italian artist Paola Folicaldi Suh features scenes and portraits which vividly reimagine the extraordinary survival story of Shackleton and his crew who left Britain on the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition or ‘Endurance Expedition’ in 1914.

Although Shackleton failed to complete the first overland crossing of Antarctica via the South Pole, all 26 crew members survived despite two years stranded in the frozen wilderness.

Folicaldi Suh’s artworks draw on surviving black and white photographs taken by the expedition’s official photographer Frank Hurley and include oil paintings on sackcloth and mixed media panels combining oil and tempera on tapestry.

Each piece is accompanied by quotes from Shackleton’s memoir ‘South’ as well as recollections by Endurance captain Frank Worsley and Aeneas Mackintosh, captain of the support vessel Aurora.

Born in Fermo, Italy, and now living in Stockholm, Folicaldi Suh is known for portraits and paintings with psychological introspection. Fortitudo marks her first foray into the world of polar exploration.

The exhibition’s title Fortitudo is drawn, like the name Endurance, from the Shackleton family motto: ‘Fortitudine Vincimus’ – ‘through endurance we conquer’.

Eva Bukowska, Exhibitions and Events Officer at the Scottish Maritime Museum, says: 

“We are thrilled to welcome Paola Folicaldi Suh and host her remarkable exhibition Fortitudo.

“Folicaldi Suh dedicated over two years to researching the Endurance expedition. The result is a powerful and immersive series that breathes new life into this iconic chapter in maritime history.

“Her ability to convey the atmosphere, lighting and peril of the expedition is extraordinary.

“It’s a wonderful opportunity to see one of history’s greatest tales of survival and leadership through the perspective of a contemporary artist.”

Folicaldi Suh adds:

“The story of Endurance is an amazing story of our humanity.

“As Jack London said: “The most beautiful stories always start with a wreckage”.

“I am delighted that my paintings are now displayed to the public at the Scottish Maritime Museum.”

Fortitudo, which is included in Museum Admission, runs until 18 January.

BACKGROUND: SHACKLETON AND THE ENDURANCE EXPEDITION 

• Born in Ireland in 1874, the British polar explorer Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton took part in four expeditions to the Antarctic in the early 1900s – a period now known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.
• After Roald Amundsen’s conquest of the South Pole in 1911, Shackleton set his sights on becoming the first to cross the Antarctic continent overland via the Pole.
• The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, also known as the EnduranceExpedition, was his third expedition and his second as expedition leader.
• Funding included £10,000 from the British Government and £24,000 from Dundee jute magnate Sir James Caird.
• Shackleton purchased the Norwegian-built three-masted sailing barquentine Polaris for £14,000 and renamed it Endurance.
• His goal was to establish a base on the Weddell Sea coast and then trek across the ice. Thesupport vessel, the Dundee-built steam yacht Aurora, was tasked with laying supply depots on the opposite side of the continent.
• On 8 August 1914, Shackleton, 26 crewmen, one cat and 69 dogs set sail from London aboardthe Endurance, which was fitted with coal powered triple expansions engines and specially constructed of pine, oaks and greenheart to navigate pack ice.
• On arriving in the Weddell Sea in December, Endurance soon became trapped in the thick sea ice.
• Captain Frank Worsley describes ‘the bravest and most gallant fight ever put up by ship’ as Endurance is “nipped with a million-ton pressure…. groaning like a living thing”.
• After nine months trapped in the ice, Endurance finallycrushes under the pressure and Shackleton abandons a ship in which he “had centred ambitions, hopes and desires”.
• Gathering provisions and lifeboats, Shackleton and crew manage seven and half miles before they are forced to give up and camp on the ice floes.
• In April 1916, as Spring arrives, they are able to row to Elephant Island.
• Shackleton, Worsley and four others then undertake a perilous 800 miles journey to South Georgia eventually reaching a whaling station in May.
• In August, after several failed rescue attempts, all crew members are rescued from Elephant Island.
• Sir Ernest Shackleton died of a heart attack in South Georgia in 1922 at the start of his fourth expedition to Antarctica. He was 47 years old.
• In March 2022, the wreck of Endurance was discovered during the Endurance22 Expedition, a hundred years after Shackleton’s death and just four miles from the co-ordinates originally recorded by Worsley.
• It is now a protected Historic Site and Monument under the Antarctic Treaty.

To learn more, visit www.scottishmaritimemuseum.org