Clear conventions are linked to how we behave in various contexts. At a rock concert we jump up and down and scream, at a museum we take a dressy step back and survey the works of art on display with a searching look. Anyone who laughs loudly at an art exhibition will quickly be suspected of being preoccupied with something other than the art. But can art be fun? We probably often think of art history as something a little serious. I love my profession, but I have to admit that it’s rare that I really beat myself up when I’m working. In the exhibition “LOL: Humor in Norwegian art history”, Haugar Art Museum explores art’s humorous potential. An interesting and fun project in the exhibition is Ole John Aandal’s series of manipulated photographs made between 1994 and 2007. Here he has placed himself in familiar images of various famous people and situations. Photo: Haugar art museum/ Øystein Thorvaldsen He peers forward from behind a youthful Märtha Louise with a horse, and acts as a helpful personal trainer for Lady Diana. The images criticize the notion that photography can offer a truthful and objective representation of reality, … Photo: Haugar kunstmuseum/ Øystein Thorvaldsen … but they are also a delightful satire of our narcissistic image reality, a long time before the age of the selfie. It’s funny how he appears in the iconic photograph of convicted spy Arne Treholt on the street with KGB agent Gennadij Titov. Photo: HAUGAR KUNSTMUSEUM/ ØYSTEIN THORVALDSEN I was a little anxious on your behalf beforehand. Were they really going to actually make me laugh, or would I just pull a little dutifully on the smiley face? But I can promise I laughed! In fact, at one point, the tears welled up. The exhibition embraces everything from subtle comedy in romantic depictions of folk life to the crudest crudeness in contemporary art. Gallows humorous entrance The first thing that meets us in the exhibition is Victor Lind’s little film “Did you know he was a glorious dancer” from 1999. The film shows Adolf Hitler doing some awkward dance steps, which are played in a loop so that it looks as if he dances a kind of perpetual dance with himself. There is something helpless and grotesque about this small, vivid picture, which is very comically contrasted with the mild exaggeration of the title. Photo: Haugar art museum/ Øystein Thorvaldsen Victor Lind is an artist we probably associate with the political more than the humorous, but the film works well as a gallows-humorous introduction to the exhibition. Making fun of power Making fun of power has always been important. As wonderful as it is to laugh at Hitler’s pathetic dance, it is when Morten Viskum has a hard time with Putin’s four-metre-long meeting table. Since 2004, every single year, on his own birthday, Viskum has made a new wax cast of himself. Each time he lets the self-portrait take on a new role. INVOLUNTARY COMIC: Many have made fun of the length of the table that Putin sits at when he meets heads of state in the Kremlin. Whether it is about a desire for diplomatic distance or fear of contagion… Photo: Haugar kunstmuseum/ Øystein Thorvaldsen, there is something ridiculous about the fact that the world leader who inflicts the greatest suffering and challenges on Europe and the West is himself so terrified and pitiful when he entrenches himself at the end of the table in Morten Viskum’s artwork. Photo: HAUGAR ART MUSEUM/ØYSTEIN THORVALDSEN He has been Jesus Christ, kneeling Muslim, bodybuilder, beggar and scientist. He often enters the most heated debates fearlessly. During the Libya crisis, he was the deposed and wanted president Gaddafi, and while the big terror trial was going on, he himself was Anders Behring Breivik as a clown. Through his annual (self) portraits, Viskum explores the border against the banal. That is why he chooses the wax doll, which is associated with popular culture and the entertainment industry, rather than art. Through these wax dolls, he engages in a kind of active immersion in various current issues and situations. GØY: The exhibition also invites us to see the comic in some older works of art, such as this painting by Matthias Stoltenberg from 1844. Photo: Haugar kunstmuseum/ Øystein Thorvaldsen Adolph Tidemand’s two small oil paintings show a married couple on their way to, and then from, the church. On the way to the church, he rides stout with a floppy hat, and his fur-clad wife on the back of the horse, while on the way home he sits a little disheveled … Photo: HAUGAR KUNSTMUSEUM/ ØYSTEIN THORVALDSEN … like a wreck on horseback, and the poor wife has to hold him up. What happened? Did he perhaps have a small bottle in his pocket at church, or has he been somewhere else entirely? Or was it the long sermon that completely broke him? Photo: HAUGAR KUNSTMUSEUM/ ØYSTEIN THORVALDSEN So close that I don’t believe it’s true But it’s only when I get to Vanessa Baird’s paper work with inscriptions that I really have to laugh out loud! They are so gross I don’t think it’s true. In one picture, we see a kneeling woman in a pink dress, with decorative stilettos on her feet and her bottom in the air. She is surrounded by flowers, the petals of which encircle brown, screaming faces. Underneath is written: “Do you know how to make a lady scream twice? Fuck your ass and wipe your cock on the curtain afterwards.” GROVISER: The works of Vanessa Baird make news’s reviewer have a good laugh. Photo: Haugar art museum/ Øystein Thorvaldsen This work has the inscription “Did you know that guinea pigs die when they mate? At least that’s what happened to the guinea pig I fucked.” Photo: Haugar art museum/ Øystein Thorvaldsen The contrast between the vulgar statement and the vulnerable portrayal of women is heartbreaking, but also unstoppably comical. It’s like I want to cry a little in the middle of laughing. Another image shows a woman sitting in her underwear in a small, claustrophobic room. She is red in the face and has wide-open eyes. She holds her hands over her head as if in fright. Below it is written: “Did you know that guinea pigs die when they mate? At least that’s what happened to the guinea pig I fucked.” Baird, as so often, moves right on the edge of what is right. She likes herself in this rough zone. In her humorous, often grotesque and sexual, drawings, she explores questions related to what it means to be a human being with a body on earth – a body that gradually crumbles away and disappears. She is concerned with tenderness and longing, but also raw, cynical drive. Perhaps there is something about our watchful offense culture that makes it nice and liberating to have some really gross insults once in a while? HARMONY: The exhibition ends with an effective meeting between Jan Christensen’s work “Painting myself into a corner” from 2004 and Odd Nerdrum’s painting “A blind singer and two dancers.” made between 1991–2004. Perhaps one can interpret this juxtaposition as a small funny retort to Odd Nerdrum, who undoubtedly in the period between 1970 and 1990 was considered one of our greatest, but who has managed to paint himself thoroughly into a corner in Norwegian art life. Photo: Haugar art museum/ Øystein Thorvaldsen What we think is fun is of course individual. Haugar does not attempt to give us an exhaustive picture of the changes in humor throughout the history of art, but invites us on a laugh-out-loud journey with selected historical as well as contemporary works. The fact that they approach the humorous in so many different ways means that I think most people will find something that amuses them in this exhibition! news reviews Title: “LOL – Humor in Norwegian art history” Where: Haugar art museum Artists: Dag Alveng, Anders Askevold, Vanessa Baird, Bjørn Bjarre, Jan Christensen, Jonas Ekeberg, Gardar Eide Einarsson, Erling Enger, Lillebet Foss, Jan Freuchen, Bjørn -Kowalski Hansen, Toril Johannessen, Audar Kantun, Stian Eide Kluge, Victor Lind, Mom & Jerry, Bjarne Melgaard, Edvard Munch, Odd Nerdrum, Urd J. Pedersen, Matthias Stoltenberg, Vibeke Tandberg, Adolph Tidemand, Lars Monrad Vaage, Morten Viskum , Terje Ythjall, Ole John Aandal. Set aside minimum: 40 minutes to 1.5 hours Date: June 10 – September 17, 2023
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“LOL – Humor in Norwegian art history” at Haugar Art Museum – Reviews and recommendations
