Page 72 - Studio International - April 1968

Modern art in Norway

John Boulton Smith
It is three year since I last wrote about contemporary Norwegian
art in Studio International. The work of most of those artists di cussed
then is on exhibition at the Camden Arts Centre during April. They
are among the be t artists working in Iorway and for all of them thi
is their first major pre entation in England. ixteen artist are taking
part and the work includes paintings, prints, sculpture and tapestries.
everal general things are apparent from this exhibition. One is that
these artists seem more attracted to idioms which can be suggestive
and atmospheric rather than mathematical or scientific. \Vith one or
two exceptions, neither hard edge nor kinetic art has yet become
generally popular in Norway. Nature still means a lot to Norwegians,
even to abstract arti ts. Another thing is the importance of colour,
which has tended to mean more than form to orwegian artists of
this century. A third is that most of the artist are more intere ted in
using established media in a personal way rather than in trying to
expand the borderlines of art to embrace new fields.
The two senior painters here are Jakob Weidemann and Johanne
Rian; both have big reputations in Scandinavia and both have repre-

Above: Jakob Weidemann
The big tree 1968
oil on canvas. 79 x 63 in.
Left: Rolf Nesch
Wind-diptych 1955
oil colour and metal plates.
each section 21 ½ x 16½ in.

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