In the exhibition “Else Hagen. Between people” I am walking around in speechless admiration. This is truly an artist who has something all his own. At her best, she is simply unbeatable. Else Hagen (1914–2010) originally dreamed of becoming a dancer. Instead, she became a painter, bringing the rhythms, movement and breath of dance into art. She was an important feminist pioneer in Norwegian artistic life. FABULOUS WORKS: In “Våt Pike” (1961) we can see a fine and expert stylization. Here we see the water hitting the head. Here she weaves black into the colorful whole in a very good way. Photo: Freia Breer Here we see the fine interplay between surface and space. A less gifted artist might have made the arms symmetrical. But Hagen’s dynamic responsiveness is more complicated. There is something indescribable in the way she voices, forms and colors against each other. Photo: Børre Nilsen This is so warm and beautiful and closely depicted. Color-wise, it’s also absolutely gorgeous. See the beautiful course of curves that the soft arms create. It gives a flowing flow to the composition; like a sensuous circular movement that goes through the whole thing. Photo: The National Museum “The Virgin” (1945). A sensual depiction of a naked young woman on a bed. The associations are of course with Munch’s Puberty, but in contrast to this very angst-filled image, Else Hagen’s painting has something more meditative and tranquil. Photo: The National Museum Not only did she portray strong, free and independent girls and women, but she was also one of the very first female artists to combine family life with an extensive artistic career. She was also the first woman to create a monumental work in the public space in Norway. She broke with the myth of women’s art as something small and decorative. And perhaps it is as a monumental artist that she has made the most of her mark. Without knowing her name, there are probably at least many people who have seen her large stone mosaic “Society” on TV, centrally located as it is in the Storting’s mighty stairwell. MOSAIC: “Society” in the Storting’s Staircase, here from the program “An artist’s work” which you can see at the bottom of the article.news For most people, Else Hagen is still a relatively unknown name. And this is what the National Museum together with Kunstsilo and the art museums in Stavanger and Trondheim have wanted to do something about. The collaborative exhibition “Between People” is now on display throughout the summer at the Trondheim Art Museum. Superb as a youngster Most artists go from being independent and strongly influenced by teachers, role models and current trends. The usual thing is that a more distinctive and individualized idiom gradually emerges. But with Else Hagen, it was basically the other way around. “PARADIS” (1947): Here we see five little girls who jump paradise in a busy drabant town on a ridge above a big city. Small groups of children and young people with and without bicycles are in the background. Behind the children playing and the tall apartment blocks we see the golden evening sky and the glittering lights of the city in the distance. A dynamic game of rhythm occurs between the children’s heads. A soft curve creates a flowing movement through the children’s arms. The limbs may not look exactly as they would in reality, but they are exactly as they need to be in order to be part of this pictorial whole. Photo: The National Museum Very early on, she found her warm, soft, dancing idiom. Impressively, she combined a conscious, and almost mathematical division of the surface, with dynamic curves, and a sensuous and musical colouring. Her early works from the 40s and 50s are simply world class. Examples here are works such as “Paradis”, “Family”, “Friends”, or “Portrait of a woman”. GORGEOUS: Another absolutely superb example of how skilled Else Hagen is at her best is “Female portrait” (probably from 1950). This is visual art of the highest class. Here she has created a fine-tuned balance between denominations. She balances beautiful green and red tones against each other, and lets the yellow-orange sound against the blue. In a wonderful way, she manages to anchor all the image’s various elements, such as the large-patterned chair, in the pictorial whole. Here she really brings the entire picture surface to life. The expert way she plays flat and space against each other makes me want to compare her with a historical world artist like Henri Matisse. The woman’s face has something introverted and enigmatic that makes me curious. Photo: The National Museum Pictorial superpower When I wander from her early works to works from the late 1960s onwards, I see a change. Gradually and imperceptibly, I feel that the images lose their very special character; they become more ordinary, some of them downright banal. One explanation is possibly that later in her career she more often replaced painting with other less dynamic media such as graphics and material techniques such as metal and stone. Many artists have great use for the disciplinary effect that graphics impose on the formal language. Already while she is in her prime and transferring motifs to graphics, we see how it hardens and dies a little. In the linocut “Mother and Child” (1949) we see that the expression loses the fluidity and flow that characterize her strongest paintings. Photo: The National Museum From flow and movement and dance in the painting with so much breath and air, she ends up completely in the hard and solid in the metal works. Here she probably draws inspiration from Rolf Nesch, but does not master this medium like him. Here it hardens completely. Photo: Trondheim Kunstmuseum Painting is a medium where you can continue to make adjustments until you are satisfied, whereas with, for example, woodcuts and lithography early in the process you are forced to make binding choices, which you cannot easily change later. I think that Else Hagen was probably someone who should just paint and paint, and stand in the eternal flow of revisions that painting opens up. Her painterly gestures were like statements, to which the painting’s expression became a response, and to which she in turn responded with new painterly moves. Else Hagen was a master at engaging in this dialogue with her own images. It was undoubtedly in the picturesque that her superpower as an artist lay. An incomprehensible drop in quality Nevertheless, it is obvious that the whole explanation cannot lie here, because she continued to paint beyond the 70s, 80s and 90s. It seems that in the later phase she has not been able to find her way back to the dynamic flow of the composition and the fine-tuned, responsive color that characterizes her early works. An example is “Portrait of Torborg Nedreaas”. GLIPPER: One can almost sense the admiration for the model, which has possibly hindered her in the intuitive and free interpretation of her. The painting has clear qualities, but does not reach Else Hagen’s superb works from the early phase. Photo: The National Museum The picture undoubtedly has its qualities; not least, there is expressive strength and character in the depiction of the face, and the cat is also very nicely painted, but as an overall painting it falls apart. The jacket has become far too dark and completely destroys the composition. There are no intermediate denominations that connect the large almost black field with the light background. In front of the painting “Closed door” from 1989, I feel downright melancholic. I don’t know enough about Else Hagen’s biography to try to explain why her development was like this. BANALT: In the later part of her career, Else Hagen’s pictures gradually become less interesting and unique. They become more ordinary and some of them downright banal, such as this print, which really any relatively competent designer could make. Photo: The National Museum For me, this drop in quality is so clear that I am surprised that it is not thematized through the exhibition. I would have liked to have understood what really happened. In any case, her flowering period is so sensational that it means that Else Hagen deserves a much wider place in Norwegian art history than she has been given. That makes this exhibition important; because it helps to elevate a long-forgotten artist: an artist who, at his best, actually deserves to be considered one of our greatest. Dive into the news archive in this exclusive interview with Else Hagen from 1976: Conversation with the artist Else Hagen about her work. By Johan Vestly. news reviews Photo: Freia Breer Title: “Else Hagen. Between people” Artist: Else Hagen Curators: Ida Grøttum (Trondheim Art Museum) and Øystein Ustvedt (National Museum). Recommended time: 30-60 minutes. Place and date: 25 May-1 September 2024 (Trondheim Art Museum). Can also be seen at the National Museum in Oslo (10 October-26 January 2024) and at Kunstsilo in Kristiansand (1 March-1 June 2025). Published 02.07.2024, at 10.54
ttn-69
“Else Hagen. Between people” – news Culture and entertainment
