Norwegian art, term for art in the field of Norway. In the early days, the area of today’s Norway was artistically part of the Scandinavian animal styles (Germanic art).
Middle Ages
In a narrower sense, one speaks of Norwegian art since the founding of the empire by Harald I Fairhair in the late 9th century. The high-level carpentry technique of the Vikings (temples, royal halls, ships, e.g. Oseberg finds) fertilized Christian sacred art and was used in stave church building. Around 30 stave churches have survived, including Urnes on the Lustrafjord, Borgund and Heddal. Almost all churches originally had a painted ceiling, as in Torpo in Hallingdal (around 1280).
In addition, numerous Romanesque stone churches, mostly simple country churches, were built soon after 1100. Of the more spacious city churches, the cathedral in Hamar has only survived as a ruin as the earliest. The two largest buildings, the cathedral in Stavanger (last refinement 1272 ff.) And the cathedral in Trondheim, expanded after 1248 and only completed in the 19th century, both with rich figural decorations, show the orientation towards the English High Gothic. Of the secular buildings of the Middle Ages, v. a. the Håkonshalle (1247–61) and the Rosenkrantz Tower (1562–68, core from the 13th century) in Bergen and the Akershus fortress in Oslo (around 1300), the interior of which was converted into a renaissance castle in the 17th century.
Significant examples of Romanesque sculpture include the statue of St. Olaf from Værnes (around 1150; Trondheim, Cathedral Museum), a monk’s head and a Mother of God from Urnes (end of the 12th century; Bergen, Historisk Museum) and the fragments of a crucifixion from Giske (around 1200; ibid). In the late Middle Ages, many carved altars from Lübeck and the Netherlands as well as English alabaster reliefs came to Norway through trade. Panel painting flourished during the Gothic period. Numerous painted antependia emerged, the subject matter of which is often based on the bzyzantine models (antependia from Nes, Årdal and Nedstryn, around 1280–90; Bergen, Historisk Museum).
Renaissance to Classicism
According to best-medical-schools, the unfavorable political situation affected the art scene in Norway from the Renaissance to the 18th century. In the 17th and 18th centuries, however, a rich folk art developed: carvings on farmhouses, storehouses (Stabburs) and churches (e.g. byJ. B. Klugstad, * around 1715, † around 1773) and painting, whose »rose decor« walls, Blankets, furniture and dishes covered. Foreign artists dominated painting. The ivory carver Magnus Berg (* 1666, † 1739) was v. a. active abroad. In the 18th century, secular wooden buildings were still built, now also in the Rococo style (Damsgård in Bergen, around 1770). The Danish architects Christian Henrik Grosch (* 1801, † 1865) represented classicism, who designed the University of Oslo, andHans Ditlev Frantz Linstow (* 1787, † 1851), according to whose plans the palace there was built (1825–48).
19th century
Historicism in the second half of the 19th century culminated in a phase of “national romanticism ” (Henrik Bull, * 1864, † 1953; Johan Olaf Nordhagen, * 1883, † 1925; Arnstein Rynning Arneberg, * 1882, † 1961; M. Poulsson), which combined various influences (including Arts and Crafts Movement, neo-Gothic, Art Nouveau) and lasted until the 1920s. It was replaced by a very short-lived neoclassical movement (Herman Munthe-Kaas, * 1890, † 1977).
The greatest achievements in the field of painting come from artists in the 19th century, some of whom stayed abroad for a long time, such as J. C. C. Dahl, who was friends with C. D. Friedrich, and his students (including T. Fearnley and P. A. Balke), and A. Tidemand, J. F. Eckersberg, H. F. Gude, H. A. Cappelen and L. Hertervig and H. Backer , F. Thaulow, E. Peterssen and E. T. Werenskiold who, inspired by the French Impressionists, turned to outdoor painting. Socially critical traits shaped the work of C. Krohg, who introduced naturalism in Norway. N. Astrup was one of the “romantics” of the years after 1890. In the 19th century and also around the turn of the 20th century, S. Sinding was the dominant figure in sculpture.
Modern and present
Functionalism in architecture was represented by Nicolai Sivert Beer (* 1885, † 1950), Lars Thalian Backer (* 1892, † 1930), Ove Bang (* 1895, † 1942), Arne Korsmo (* 1900, † 1968) and others. After the Second World War, Knut Knutsen (* 1903, † 1969), Erling Viksjø (* 1910, † 1971), Sverre Fehn (* 1924, † 2009), Johan Andreas Engh (* 1915, † 1997), Kjell Lund (* 1927, † 2013) and Nils Slaatto (* 1923, † 2002) meaning. The Are Telje (* 1936) office has been making a name for itself with its urban architecture since the 1970s, Frederic A. S. Torp (* 1937) and Knut Aasen (* 1936, † 1996); in residential construction is, among other things. Niels Torp (* 1940) with wooden buildings. Postmodernism is represented by Jan & Jon (Jan G. Digerud, * 1938, and Jon Lundberg, * 1933), the rational architecture Arne Henriksen (* 1944), Thomas Thiis-Evensen (* 1946), in the late work Harald Hille (* 1921) und Partner or the Arkitektkontoret 4 B (Theater in Oslo, 1985). Constructive logic is the goal of Jan Olav Jensen (Rølvsøy Railway Garage, 1990); she also draws the Fehn Glacier Museum at Jostedalsbre (1991) and the Olympic ski jumping facility from ØKAW (Lillehammer, 1994). Deconstructivist elements show the expressive art gallery of the office Snøhetta (Lillehammer, 1994) and the new buildings of the University of Tromsø (Büro Blå Strek, 1994 ff.). The office Snøhetta v. a. also internationally successful (new construction of the Alexandrian Library in Alexandria, 1995–2000; competition victory for the new museum complex to be built at Ground Zero in New York, 2004).
In the visual arts, G. Munthe made a significant contribution to Art Nouveau with his designs for tapestries. In the field of graphics, v. a. T. Kittelsen and O. Gulbransson, who was one of the most important collaborators of the »Simplicissimus« in Munich. Henrik Louis Lund (* 1879, † 1935) was particularly valued as a portraitist. Norwegian painting achieved European importance with E. Munch. He was not only one of the pioneers of Expressionism, but also one of the innovators of wall painting (Hall of the University of Oslo, 1910–16).
Erichsen and L. P. Karsten were among the newer colorists after the turn of the century. J. H. Heiberg, H. Sørensen, Axel Revold (* 1887, † 1962), P. L. Krohg and others studied with H. Matisse in Paris. Revold, Krohg and A. Rolfsen, members of the »fresco group« formed around 1920, created monumental murals. R. Nesch, who has been active in Norway since 1933, was of great importance. Modern trends followed after the Second World War, inter alia. Johannes Rian (* 1891, † 1981), Thore Heramb (* 1916, † 2014), Knut Rumohr (* 1916, † 2002), Ludvig O. Eikaas (* 1920, † 2010), Gunnar Gundersen (* 1921, † 1983) and Jakob Weidemann (* 1923, † 2001). Textile art received new impulses from Frederikke Hansen (* 1855, † 1931), S. Aurdal and Jan Groth (* 1938).
The most important sculptor in the successor to Sinding was G. Vigeland, with whom representatives of the younger generation around 1920 such as Emil Carl Jonas Lie (* 1897, † 1976), Gunnar Tideman Janson (* 1901, † 1983) and Stinius Fredriksen (* 1902, † 1977). Later v. a. Ornulf Bast (* 1907, † 1974), Per Hurum (* 1910, † 1989) and Per Palle Storm (* 1910, † 1994), after 1945 especially Hans Jacob Meyer (* 1907, † 1993), Arne Johan Vinje Gunnerud (* 1930, † 2007) and Arnold Haukeland (* 1920, † 1983) emerged as the main representative of non-figurative sculpture.
Since the mid-1970s, the Norwegian art scene has broken down the image of melancholy mood painting determined by the Nordic landscape in favor of a variety in form and content that follows international artistic tendencies. Nevertheless, a painterly and sculptural tradition is still alive today that can be described as a continuation of the existential analyzes of a Munch. Representing the artists Per Ung (* 1933, † 2013), Arvid Pettersen (* 1943), Kjell Torriset (* 1950), Leonard Rickhard (* 1945), Gabrielle Kielland (* 1945) and Johanne Marie Hansen-Krone (* 1952) called. Artist like Bjørn Sigurd Tufta (* 1956), Kristian Blystad (* 1946), which since 1993 working in Berlin Bente Stokke (born 1952), John Audun Hauge (born 1955), Ola Enstad (* 1942) and Steinar Christensen (* 1946) afford Contributions to the development of the canon of modern aesthetics in sculptures, paintings and object installations.
The next generation of Norwegian artists ironically ironized both the Nordic tradition and the rules of the classic avant-garde. Marit Benthe Norheim (* 1960), Kristin Aarnes (* 1955), Per Formo (* 1952) and Lars Paalgard (* 1955) refer in and with their works to the need to question banal and aesthetic self- evident facts. With his provocative works, M. Faldbakken primarily discusses the conditions of art production within the dominant art industry. In the area of multimedia-oriented art, v. a. the video artist Kjell Bjørgeengen (* 1951) and the conceptual photographers Ingrid Book (* 1951) and Carina Hedén (* 1948) to name.
