Christian Fredrik Schjøtt
27.05.67 – 11.06.67
In 1967, Kunstnernes Hus held a memorial exhibition for Christian Fredrik Schjøtt. At the exhibition, 63 paintings painted between 1940 and 1961 were exhibited. The same exhibition was also set up in the Bergen Kunstforening. The exhibition was set up four years after Schjøtt's death, he was only 43 years old.
The exhibition was very well received by the public when it was shown. Since Schjøtt was not very well known when he died, the exhibition came as a positive surprise to the public, and Morgenbladet's Arne Durban concluded "After this memorial exhibition, you remember Christian Fredrik Schjøtt's name".
Utdrag fra katalogen
Parallelt med teknikkens akselerasjon har utviklingen i den bildende kunst skjedd med eksplosiv kraft. Effektivitetens tidsalder på godt og ondt gjenspeiler seg i kunsten slik kunsten alltid har vært et speilbilde av sin tid. Men også her er det unntagelser, individualister som trosser ismer og skoler. Christian Fredrik Schjøtt var en av dem. I sin malerkunst gikk han sine egne veier — uberørt av samtidens uttrykksformer. Derfor ble der også en egen sannhet over hans maleri som forteller om den inderlige kjærlighet til og respekt for naturens kraft, den utømmelige kilde hvorfra maleren kunne finne uttrykk for det han ville meddele gjennom form og farve. I hans opptatte glede og forundring over dette, favner han inn i sitt maleri det som berørte hans kunstneriske nerve. ...
... Alle de som kom i kontakt med denne kunstneren, måtte bli glad i ham og få respekt for det store og rene livssyn han var kommet frem til. Når man gikk fra ham, var det alltid med en indre opplevelse og glede. Han var en venn i ordets sanne mening, en venn som eide evnen til å høre på andre og ta del i andres sorger og gleder. Med sin fine menneskekunnskap og sin kloke dømmekraft, var han alltid en støtte og hjelp. Selv var han den gladeste forteller med ekte sans for humor i de små og store ting. Rammet av vel den hårdeste skjebne en maler kan få, å miste synet, falt det aldri en bitter bemerkning fra ham. Høyreist i ånd og givende til det siste var dette mennesket som nu skal tale til oss gjennom sin kunst.
About the artist
Christian Fredrik Schjøtt (1921-1964) was a Norwegian artist from Bergen. His art was strongly rooted in the Lhôte tradition. When other directions and impulses began to develop in the art world, Schjøtt chose to go his own way without caring about the current trends. This, in combination with the fact that he avoided everything that had to do with publicity, were probably important factors in the fact that Schjøtt never became particularly famous during his lifetime.
Early in his artistic career he produced many landscape paintings, some cityscapes as well as portraits and self-portraits. For a period he also worked as a portrait painter to earn money.
Schjøtt's paintings are largely characterized by the importance of strokes: quick and spontaneously applied strokes are consistent in the paintings and in all likelihood he either worked quite quickly and spontaneously, or this was directed to create an expression. Schjøtt himself believed that good art should look like it was created with ease, that it had grown up by itself.
Schjøtt is represented at the National Museum with the painting Komediebakken.
