SELECTED COLLECTION OF NORWEGIAN PAINTING IN KAUNAS

SELECTED COLLECTION OF NORWEGIAN PAINTING IN KAUNAS 2010 03 09

Kamane.lt

Th.Sovig. "View of Bergen"

The exhibition of Norwegian painting “Fra Dahl til Dolk“ (“From Dahl to Dolk”) will be opened in Kaunas, at the National M.K.Čiurlionis Art Museum, M.Žilinskas Art Gallery (Nepriklausomybės Sq.12) on the 9th of March at 5 p.m. The private collection of Norwegian paintings from the period of 1850 – 2008 owned by art collectors Annie and Birger Mowinckels will be showcased.

The exhibition “Fra Dahl til Dolk“ is formed of almost 160 works created by artists who were born and lived in Bergen and other locations of North Norway.

Bergen is the old capital of Norway, which was one of the most important Hanza centres for many years. Several talented painters of the 18th century derive from this seaport.

I.C.Dahl called the father of Norwegian painting, born in 1788, lived in Dresden but used to bring a batch of sketches from his native Bergen every summer, from which he created paintings in his workshop in Germany. I. C. Dahl was interested in ancient Norwegian architecture, he contributed to the preservation of churches and founding of art museums in the country. The ideas of the artist were followed by painters Frantz Bøe, Knud Baade, Tycho Jæger.

The Norwegian painting changed in 1890-1900. The majority of artists chose studies in Paris rather than Germany. The colour became more important than the plot and the form in their works. After studies in Paris, such controversial artists as Arne Kavli, Henrik Lund, Xan Krohn organised their exhibitions. Many Norwegian artists from the West coast were pupils of André Lhote and Pedro Araujo in the 3rd decade of the 20th century (one of them is Nils Krantz). They admired the composition of P. Cézanne, and the influence of cubism became prominent in their works. Meanwhile, other artists, such as Astrup or Tunold remained loyal to native landscapes.

Landscapes without figures were mainly painted in the later period in Norway (Rumohr, Olav Strømme, Gunnar S. Gundersen); then the artists returned to figure landscapes, portraits and still-lifes (Ørnulf Oppdahl). The collection includes a rather big number of works of the recent period. These are works by Eikaas, Slettemark, Grundt, Atle Skudal, Silje Heggren, and representative of street art Dolk.

The exhibition will be open until the 18th of April.