Jorn + Munch = Nordic power

This exhibition let me see Asgeir Jorn compared to Munch, but perhaps more importantly Jorn and Munch in relation to the Nordic expression. The framing, Jorn + Munch is too narrow. It quite naturally open up an even wider perspective with references running everywhere, even to the work of Frances Bacon. Without the making use of the traditional, intellectual instruments Jorns paintings contains both symbolism and the intuitive message. 

 A Jorn: "Double face" 1990. Detail

A Jorn: "The silent myth, Opus 7", 1952 detail

A Jorn: "The situation of a central figure", 1966 - 68, detail

In "The situation of a central figure" I see a Nordic "troll" version of Bacon's "The pope". Stronger, more vulnerable and even more brutal in its appearance. ! 

E Munch "Man in the cabbage field", 1916, detail

I even feel the strong presence of  Nikolai Astrup in many of Jorns pictures. Together with Munchs authoritative strenght this become a show of Nordic power.  

This is a “must see”

http://munchmuseet.no/en/exhibitions/jorn-munch

Observingart: JASPER JOHNS + EDVARD MUNCH at Munch Museum, Oslo

Selvportrett. Mellom klokken og sengen. Edvard Munch 1940-43

The exhibition examines the connection between Edvard Munch's work and one of the truly great names in contemporary art – Jasper Johns. Never before has there been such a comprehensive exhibition of Johns' art in Scandinavia.

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Observingart: Munch and Expressionism Neue Galerie New York February 18–June 13, 2016

Edvard Munch - Self portrait in hell. 

Source: Google Art Project: pic/ Wikipedia

Picture is an illustration, not from the exhibit. 

The show, curated by Expressionist scholar Dr. Jill Lloyd, has been organized in tandem with Munch specialist Dr. Reinhold Heller.

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Observingarts: Mapplethorpe + Munch at The Munch Museum in Oslo

Edvard Munch: Selvportrett, 1895, Munchmuseet, Oslo

Robert Mapplethorpe: Self-Portrait, 1988. 

© Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation.

"Juxtaposing Munch and Mapplethorpe reveals several commonalities, such as their widespread use of traditional genres, primarily portraits and nudes. Another is the existential expression that permeates their art in different ways. Other commonalities can be found in their self-understanding as artists and in the way they both caused a scandal with their art. Both were members of a bohemian subculture of artists that defied the establishment of their era".

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Observingarts: Edvard Munch Art Award to the French artist Camille Henrot

EMAA@mucnhmuseet.no

Edvard Munch Art Award is awarded for the first time in 2015. 

The newly established award is the French artist Camille Henrot , and will be presented by HM Queen Sonja at the Munch Museum December 12th. 

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Observingarts: Bjørn Ransve and Edvard Munch

                                              Bjørn Ransve,demon II, 1971, oil on canvas.

"Mer tydelig er referanser til Edvard Munch hos en yngre generasjon, som deltok i maleriets nygjennombrudd i 1980-årene. Flere av dem fikk utløsende impulser fra det nye tyske maleriet som knyttet forbindelser direkte til Munch og tysk ekspresjonisme. Dagens yngste norske kunstnergenerasjon uttrykker seg ofte i andre medier enn maleriet, men også hos dem kan sees referanser til Edvard Munch, og særlig til hans psykisk mest ladede skildringer av menneskelige relasjoner".

"More clearly are references to Edvard Munch with a younger generation, who participated in the new breakthrough of painting in the 1980s. Several of them got triggering impulses from the new German painting tying relations directly to Munch and German expressionism. The generation of the youngest Norwegian artist often expresses itself in media other than painting, but also with them can be seen references to Edvard Munch, and especially to his mental most charged depictions of human relationships.

Kilde/source and more context and pictures at: http://old.munch-museet.no/ekko/

VIGELAND + MUNCH BEHIND THE MYTHS - starting 3 october 2015 Oslo

Edvard Munch: Blossom of Pain ("Quickborn"), 1897

Photo @ National Museum of Art, 

Architecture and Design

Gustav Vigeland,

Hell II (1897), bronze. 

Photo @ National Museum of Art, 

Architecture and Design

For the first time a major dual exhibition will be devoted to two giants in the history of Norwegian art, Edvard Munch and Gustav Vigeland. Their work, development and ambitions have many interesting traits in common, which will provide the public with an opportunity to discover new connections between the two. More at: Munch Museum in Oslo

Observingarts: legacy and inovation.

"The simple and frontal statement in the pictures show a red thread in Ransve art: the concentration on a figure, an object or shape leaning against a background. His debut as painter in 1971 caused a sensation with his estranged, isolated figures positioned frontally facing the viewer of the picture. The classic traditions of portraits and the legacy of Edvard Munch is mixed  with the experiences from meeting the nightmarish pictorial scenes of Francis Bacon. Pictures that are embedded in a larger European and existentially charged figurative painting tradition, but the irrational and absurd aspects of the motives also brings an element of paradox".

Bjørn Ransve, Demon

Edvard Munch, Puberty 1894

Source: Wikipedia CC Licence

Bildenes enkle og frontale oppstilling viser til en rød tråd i Ransves kunst: konsentrasjonen om en figur, et objekt eller en form stilt opp mot en bakgrunn. Hans maleridebut 1971 vakte stor oppsikt med sine fremmedgjorte, isolerte skikkelser plassert frontalt overfor betrakteren av bildet. I disse blandes den klassiske portrettradisjonen og arven fra Edvard Munch med erfaringer fra møtet med Francis Bacons marerittaktige billedscener. Det er bilder som er forankret i en større europeisk og eksistensielt ladet figurativ maleritradisjon, men det irrasjonelle og absurde ved motivene bringer også inn et element av paradoks.


Kilde: Ustvedt, Øystein. (2009, 13. februar). Bjørn Ransve. I Norsk biografisk leksikon. Hentet 8. februar 2015 fra https://nbl.snl.no/Bj%C3%B8rn_Ransve.

Observingarts: Edvard Munch's Rare Woodcut "Angst" at Sotheby's Prints & Multiples Auction In London on 29 September 2015

Munch was the key pioneer of Expressionism. In depicting nature in a highly individual, internalised manner, he drew on the tradition of 'mood-painting', characteristic of Nordic art towards the end of the nineteenth century, abandoning the plein-air naturalism which had dominated Norwegian landscape painting in favour of an emotionally charged and resonant vision of nature.

Sotheby's Edvard Munch's Rare Woodcut Prints & Multiples Auction In London on 29 September 2015 includes an earlier woodcut by Munch, "Angst", from 1896, estimated at £60,OOO-80,000. A version of the subject printed on thin Japan paper was last seen at auction over 20 years ago.

Observingarts: Edvard Munch's Rare Woodcut Leads Sotheby's Prints & Multiples Auction In London on 29 September 2015

The motif of Edvard Munch's The Girls on the Bridge has been widely recognised as one of the
artist's most celebrated, from its first unveiling in 1901. Munch went on to produce several versions of The Girls on the Bridge, creating between 1901 and 1935 a total of twelve known oil paintings and a number of variations in etching, lithograph and woodcut. A rare woodcut from 1918, the first documented impression using the colours dark blue, green and bright red-orange against teal-blue, leads Sotheby's biannual Prints & Multiples sale In London on 29 September 2015 with an estimate of £ 200 000 - 300 000. For more info: go to Sotheby's

Observingarts: Edvard Munch Sale - sneek peak at upcomming auction, 9 December 2015, Oslo

Grew Wedels Plass Auctions are preparing The Annual Norwegian Edvard Munch Sale which will take place at Hotel Continental in Oslo Wednesday 9 December. International marketing will includie viewing in London. Deadline for consignments is 7 Octobe, take a sneek peak at lots on display here. 

"Portrait dEdvard Munch" (Oslo). Licenced CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Observingarts: Gallery Würth,Oslo, announces opening of "Landscape"

Alex Katz, Hyllest til Monet 10, Oil on canvas, 2009, Inv.14505 

Gallery Würth in Oslo announces opening of the exhibition "Landscape" - Works from the Sammlung Würth. The exhibition presents a selection of images and sculptures and covers a period of 130 years of modern art history. Artists such as Edvard Munch, Heinrich von Zügel, Anselm Kiefer, Gerhard Richter and Alex Katz is represented. More info at: www.wuerth.no/galleri

Observearts: "Pink ape"

Bjørn Ransve:
Pink ape, 1995. 

Oil ond board. 125 x 94 cm. 

Light and darkness

So, what is this thing about art? Is it our opportunity to connect with others through a language spoken by great minds - guided by their hearts? Is it a clash of rationale and emotions, a productive solitude of the sender, echoing from the canvas? A silent language, left stripped and torn for our rational receptors. Intellect, emotions and - handcraft!   

                        Bjørn Ransve - detail from "Harlequin boy with monkey"

Observearts: harlequin boy with monkey

Bjørn Ransve:
Harlequin boy with monkey,1983.

Oil on canvas.

Observearts:Flow and fixation

Observing arts: the productive exchange and flow of ideas, patterns, challenging intuition, the making of  individual and collective constructs. Negotioations, agreement and diagrement. Individuality vs. collectivism. Associations and  - references of interpretation. Art through words, art through hearts. 

I want to share this rare interview with Frances Bacon. 

Source: A rare Francis Bacon interview from a 1971 BBC documentary.

                                       

Painting by Bjørn Ransve. 

Observearts:

Bjørn Ransve

Large circle, 1998. 

Oil on canvas, 240 x 240 cm.