Maker Unidentified, George C. Leighton, Gigantic Iceberg Seen by the Arctic Ships—From a Sketch by an Officer of the Valorous from The Illustrated London News, 1875, wood engraving, 11 1/8 x 15 1/4 inches (sheet). Osher Map Library.

Lordy Rodriguez, Polar Ice Cap South, 2009, mixed media on paper, 48 x 48 inches. Lent by the artist, courtesy of Hosfelt Gallery, New York.

In honor of the International Polar Year, through March 2009, the Portland Museum of Art presents an exhibition of the story of Arctic exploration during its peak years from 1850 to 1910. Drawn from the collection of the Osher Map Library at the University of Southern Maine in Portland, the exhibition features more than 35 maps, books, prints, and other graphics dedicated to the Arctic explorer. The Coldest Crucible paints a new portrait of polar voyagers, removing them from the icy backdrop of the Arctic and setting them within the tempests of American cultural life.

Accompanying The Coldest Crucible on the second floor is Polar Dispatches, an installation of 19 contemporary works by 6 artists explores polar geography in a variety of ways, from specific encounters recorded in sound and image, to poetic abstractions in prints, drawings, and works on paper.

Chris Drury, Ilana Halperin, and Alexis Rockman have all traveled to Arctic or Antarctic territory and created work imbued with their powerful experience of the land. The artists’ observations invite us to wonder at the natural phenomena they witnessed and the precariousness of life in such harsh environs. Vito Acconci, Jane D. Marsching, and Lordy Rodriguez are explorers once removed, re-interpreting data gathered by others, investigating and inventing new geographies. Their art is formed from information both real and imagined and offers us a unique entry into the frozen world. Together, this body of work brings the mystery and allure of polar regions into focus, transforming the vast and isolated unknown into something intimate and personal.