Page 48 - Studio International - May 1969

The art scene in

Scandinavia

Edward Lucie-Smith

Contemporary Scandinavian artists, unlike 'middle generation'. mises, and there have been demonstrations
contemporary Scandinavian craftsmen, have The oppressive grandeur of Norwegian recently at the gallery. If Mr Moe can make it
made little impact in Britain. This seems scenery is often cited as one of the reasons yet more irritant, and not on political grounds
curious because the social organization of the why Norwegian painters have found it diffi­ alone, the effects on Norwegian art might be
Scandinavian countries is so closely similar to cult to accommodate themselves to such profound.
our own, and the artist therefore finds him­ essentially urban stylistic experiments as pop Norwegians, who seldom have a good word
self in an almost precisely similar kind of art. But there are also other reasons. One is to say for their Swedish neighbours, cur­
framework. The lack of communication something which is in many ways admirable­ rently contend that Swedish art has lost its
begins to be less surprising, however, when the fact that it is difficult in Norway to draw soul in the frenzied pursuit of novelty.
one considers the sharp contrasts to be dis­ a firm line between the arts and the crafts. A London gallery-goers will have an oppor­
covered even in Scandinavia-the difference, maker of tapestries, such as Siri Blakstad, is tunity to judge for themselves when an exhi­
for instance, between current modes of just as much an 'artist' as an artist who paints bition of work by six of the leading younger
artistic activity in Norway and in Sweden. or sculpts. Indeed, in many ways her situa­ Swedish artists opens at the CAMDEN ART
Norway produced the man who is perhaps the tion is more fortunate than theirs-since the CENTRE this month, as part of the Camden
greatest of all Scandinavian artists-Edvard tradition she works in is stronger, she is freer Festival. The artists exhibiting are Sivert
Munch. Both the NATIONAL GALLERY in Oslo to experiment. The craftsman's feeling for Lindblom, Lars Englund, Leif Wollter, Olle
and RASMUS MEYER's COLLECTION in Bergen beautiful surfaces, beautiful textures, beauti­ Kaks, Ulrik Samuelsson and Per-Olof Ulte­
contain immensely fine examples of Munch's ful materials, is a help to her where it is vedt. Taken together, they offer a fairly good
work, but one probably gets the fullest idea of probably a hindrance to the Norwegian cross-section of the kind of work which is
his genius in the new MUNCH MUSEUM in painter. currently being shown in Stockholm itself.
Oslo, which houses the painter's bequest to his Another reason is that there is a certain lack The prevailing tone could probably best be
countrymen of all the work which remained in of edge to the Norwegian art-scene. There are described as 'neo-surrealist'. Samuelsson, for
his own possession at his death. As a collec­ few commercial galleries in Oslo, but a instance, is a maker of elaborate, rather dandi­
tion, it is analogous to, but even more com­ number of co-operative ones. It is compara­ fied environments. A whole room will be
plete than, the Turner Bequest in London. tively easy for an artist to achieve an exhibi­ retailored to the artist's specifications. One
Munch, however, remains a curiously iso­ tion, but he receives no sustained promotion. was recently shown at the GALERIE BUREN in
lated figure-he seems to have exercised a There is also little competition from outside, to Stockholm-it gave the spectator the impres­
general rather than a particular influence over stir art to life. An enthusiastic young dealer, sion that he was standing inside a painting
twentieth-century Norwegian art. This really such as ROLF GRUDE, is something of a rarity, by Magritte, which had suddenly become life­
traces back its pedigree to the small group of and it is no accident that he handles the size and three-dimensional. This gallery-one
Norwegian painters who were pupils of work of Per Kleiva, perhaps the most interest­ of a group of excellent small avant-garde
Matisse. Thanks, perhaps, to this illustrious ing of the younger Norwegians. Kleiva is now galleries in the city-has also shown Englund,
schooling, Norwegian art has remained under working in an idiom which seems to owe some­ Kaks and Lindblom. Englund makes inter­
the dominance of Paris to the present day. ing to Albers. esting inflatables, perhaps a trifle indebted to
The best-established Norwegian painters tend The single factor which seems most likely to Warhol, Lindblom makes three-dimensional
to be informal abstractionists, very much in change all this is the Henie-Onstad benefac­ plastic objects which (apparently abstract
the French manner-the French manner of tion which I've already mentioned. It is un­ when first looked at) suddenly disclose a head
the immediately post-war years. necessary to describe the collection in detail­ or a figure: a kind of communion-rail with
The collection of the HENIE-ONSTAD FOUNDA­ suffice it to say that it is largely based on the turned balusters will reveal, on a second
TION, 1 housed in a magnificent new building kind of French art which was fashionable in inspection, that the interstices are shaped like
just outside Oslo, offers a glimpse of the close the nineteen-fifties. There are no less than a man's figure. Ultevedt, of a generation
relationship between Norwegian artists and twenty-two pictures by Esteve, for instance. slightly senior to that of the others, creates
this now rather faded Parisian style. The work But the collection has provided the pretext eccentric machines with affinities to the work
of Jacob Weidemann, who is one of the few for a superb museum building, and the of Tinguely and Bruce Lacey.
Norwegian artists to be represented in the director of the Foundation, Ole Hendrik Moe, One can supplement the survey which the
collection, is virtually indistinguishable in has plans to use this as the setting for a series exhibition offers of current trends in Sweden
style from that of Bazaine, Esteve, Soulages of provocative temporary shows. There is by mentioning one or two other names. Per­
and the rest. If there is a point of difference, talk, for instance, of bringing Mark Boyle haps the most impressive one-man show I saw
it lies in Weidemann's evident feeling for and the Exploding Galaxy to Norway. The in Stockholm was that of P. G. Thelander at
nature. His abstractions are always abstrac­ Henie-Onstad Foundation is already some­ the GALERIE HEDENIUS. Thelander would in­
tions from landscape, and the same holds true what controversial-the Norwegian student evitably remind the English gallery-goer of
I think of most Norwegian artists of the Left are offended by the 'luxury' of its pre- Kitaj: that is, he is a kind of hermetic figura-
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