Rolf Stenersen and his collection.

Kunstnernes Hus has once before (April 1936) exhibited a part of Rolf Stenersen's collection. However, the collection has since increased by more than 200 works and is so large that it is not difficult to create a new exhibition that is fundamentally different from the previous one.

Rolf Stenersen's big favorite is still Edv. Munch, and he is the obvious focal point both in the collection and here in the exhibition, but he is to a greater extent represented in other paintings this time. Three paintings that previously belonged to the collection are replaced to make room for more significant works. Other favorite painters of Stenersen are also better represented now, e.g. Karsten and Erik Harry Johannessen, as well as many new photos of Ekeland, Kai Fjell, Aage Storstein, Reidar Aulie, Teddy Røwde, Erling Enger, Olav Strømme, Victor Smith, Per Smith-Kielland - and not to forget, the new favorites Rolf Nesch, Jacob Weidemann and the self-taught J. Jacobsen.

As you can see, the collection (and the exhibition) provides a kind of overview of Norwegian painting from Edv. Munch to today - but from a very specific view of art and with certain gaps, especially when it comes to the middle generation, Henrik Sørensen and his contemporaries. Rolf Stenersen himself explains his collecting in the following way: 1. «I have preferred to buy such pictures that give me the most, that suit my own mind and mood. I have tried to give a picture of my own mind with the help of other people's paintings ». "Henrik Sørensen and Sejersted Bødtker have managed to take care of all the good Norwegian painters I have not collected." 3. "My funds did not allow a further collector's work - I had to gather around the artists who were closest to me">.

This exhibition will give a good picture of the character of the collection (and thus Rolf Stenersen's mind), and we do not need to go further into it. It should also be superfluous to draw attention to the financial support Stenersen's collecting work has given Norwegian art life. Already it gives social significance. But first and foremost, we must stop at the fact that Rolf Stenersen has donated his collection to the public (more specifically the planned Student Village in Sogn). That he should have collected without self-interest is of course inconceivable. In addition, his feeling for the art is too strong. But at the same time, he says, "I have dreamed and hoped that I would be able to give away these pictures - which I would have liked to have painted myself". In light of this statement and its magnificent realization, Stenersen's collector's work takes on a new meaning, and by virtue of it it will also leave its mark on our cultural life.

It is characteristic that Rolf Stenersen, since he gave away his collection 10 years ago, has constantly made sure to expand it, so that it has now become far more representative and at the same time is completely up to date with developments in Norwegian art.

It is also characteristic that Stenersen has not had the collection stored. Of course, he acknowledges that exhibition halls must come second in the municipalities' building program, but at the same time wants his pictures to be seen, that they should benefit the general public. Instead of leaving them in a cellar, he therefore sends them out for a walk (currently in Sweden and Denmark) - and therefore this exhibition has come into being.

Reidar Revold