“Man is a political being” wrote Aristotle nearly two and a half thousand years ago. Throughout human history, art has in various ways mirrored politics and society. From the power-consolidating artistic expression of the Egyptian and Roman ancient times, to the furious activism and parole idiom of the 1970s. The exhibition at Notodden showcases Norwegian political art from the Tangen collection, from the interwar period until the 1980s. FROM THE OIL FUND MANAGER’S VAULT: Among the artists exhibited at Notodden are Arne Ekeland, Morten Krogh, Roger Gjerstad, Per Kleiva and Sveinung Iversen. Photo: Tomasz Wacko/NIA On the way in, I wonder what kind of political art is actually in the collection, and whether there is a large enough selection to raise some new and interesting perspectives on this extensive topic. In Norway, we operate with a limited understanding of political art – often it is left-wing art that we associate with the genre. Beyond the pure tendency painting, Telemark Art Center does not of course set out to present a complete narrative of Norwegian political art history from beginning to end. Rather, the exhibition shows us glimpses into important eras where socially critical art has been strong. “MORNING OF THE EXECUTION”: This is not among Reidar Aulie’s best pictures, but nevertheless it is a little less programmatic and textbook-like than the other. Here there are prisoners, depicted as individuals, pitted against faceless soldiers who will execute them. The soldiers form a wall of mechanized impersonal evil. Their bodies are somehow connected as part of the same killing machine. It is the war machine embodied. The brutal, the merciless. Here I think he has taken inspiration from Goya’s dramatic scene on 3 May 1814. Photo: Kunstsilo / Even Askildsen The exhibition is divided into different themed sections. One department is devoted to the so-called tendency painting linked to the socialist cultural front in the interwar period. Red flags raised to the sky and the impersonal mass of the unemployed are motifs typical of this phase. In the exhibition, Reidar Aulie in particular represents the cultural front, unfortunately with some of his weaker works. “THE SPEAKER”: This is not Aulie at his best either. This is a rather programmatic and ready-made expression. This graphic magazine is a version of the slightly more exciting painting “Tendens” 1931. As in this version, we see a man talking and gesturing in front of a flapping red banner, in the middle of a crowd in an urban harbor area. We see a mother with a baby, a man with his arm around a young son. In the original painting, we also see a possibly prostituted woman with a deep neckline. It weakens this version that she has been taken out. In the original painting, she is the thematic center of gravity. For Karl Marx, the whore is the very image of modern man, as she is both producer and commodity in an alienated economy. Photo: Tomasz Wacko In this section, some powerful and expressive works by Arne Ekeland, the most towering and socially critical artist of the interwar period, who with his dream-like surrealism go beyond pure tendency painting, are also shown. Power and masquerading It’s fun to see an artist like Terje Bergstad, who is a forgotten giant in Norwegian art history – a great artist who, with an expressive idiom, deals with strong existential themes, such as the suffering of life and man’s eternal loneliness. In my eyes, he surpasses many of the German Expressionists. Unfortunately, he is not represented with the best selection of photos either. IN SCHOOL WITH AULIE: Reidar Aulie singled out Terje Bergstad as his most gifted student. In the picture here, we see that he has something calligraphic about his expression: that the picture is characterized by a flow, and an organic movement throughout. Photo: TOMASZ WACKO/NIA I don’t have an overview of how much Bergstad there is in the Tangen collection, but I think this is a bit bad for a skilled artist like Bergstad. It is rare that he is as relaxed in his design as here – he could well be spared this. Photo: TOMASZ WACKO/NIA But what is at least an undoubted major work in Norwegian political art history is Kjartan Slettemark’s iconic collage series “Nixon Vision”. From a Gevalia advertisement, he cut out a slender female hand holding a coffee cup and pasted it into a picture of the then US president Richard Nixon – making it look like the president himself is holding the cup. In the exhibition, we can see different versions in which Slettemark has, with form-reliable collage techniques, both subtly and more drastically changed the president’s physiognomy. If we don’t recognize the man, we sense anyway that it’s about power and masquerading. Poetry and politics in a beautiful union Another giant within political art in Norway is Per Kleiva. He is represented with, among other things, “Blad fra imperialismens dagbok” from 1971. Here we see black soldier’s boots and dark helicopters over a beautiful flower meadow. NORWEGIAN POP ART: Kleiva was one of the foremost representatives of Norwegian pop art, and brought in the characteristic playful surface-cultivating pop aesthetic… Photo: Kunstsilo / Even Askildsen but he charged it with a strong political content that characterizes pop in America to a lesser extent and on the continent. Photo: Kunstsilo / Even Askildsen Photo: Kunstsilo / Even Askildsen Here he combines something idyllic and something eerie, and reminds us that a distant war, a battlefield far away, is not just an alien name, but a real place where children play, where people live their lives and die. It is this strong form, precise and pointed way of formulating a visual message that characterizes Per Kleiva. “KNIFE IN WATER” (1971): Kleiva was a master of visual communication. He was incredibly skilled at translating dilemmas or issues into visual expressions. This is a strong image of the futile attempt to cut water. This precisely sums up this powerful division that we often find in Kleiva: the aggressive and rebellious, and the reflective and poetic. Per Kleiva helped to form the so-called GRAS group, which through graphics as a reproducing medium, could bring art out to the people. Photo: Kunstsilo / Even Askildsen Consolidating myths rather than breaking them The exhibition undoubtedly shows us some important glimpses into meaningful art in Norway. But I probably feel that it reinforces rather than challenges myths related to meaningful art. For example, it strengthens the experience that political art is synonymous with the left’s artistic expression of rebellion. Now, of course, I do not have a full overview of what the Tangen collection has to offer and what they have possibly opted out of. If they had to make any borrowings, I think they should have included some contemporary works that could show us that political art is not a purely historical phenomenon. Nevertheless, the exhibition offers some truly towering icons of art history. news reviewer: Photo: Unknown Exhibition title: “Who owns tomorrow? Political art from the Tangen collection and the Telemark Art Museum” About: The exhibition is a collaboration and an extended version of the traveling exhibition from Kunstsilo with the title “Who owns tomorrow? Political art from the Tangen collection” Place: Telemark Art Museum Time: 26 August–22 October 2023 Curator: Hanne Cecilie Gulstad at Kunstsilo, the extension at Telemark Art Museum is curated by Kathrine Lund. Estimated time: 40 – 60 minutes.
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“Who owns tomorrow?” at Telemark Art Museum – Reviews and recommendations
