Stian Grøgaard is best known as a writer, thinker, teacher, and polemicist. As a professor at Oslo’s art academy, he was instrumental in introducing art theory and philosophy into Norwegian art education, teaching several generations of artists. It is little known that he was also a skilled painter and draftsman, first employed at the academy as a drawing instructor.

Grøgaard’s artistic practice was not characterized by the expression of a personal visual style, but rather by reproductions of found motifs. A recurring theme in his work is “heads” — figures from his family and from art history to which he was particularly attached. Paintings by Degas, Velázquez, and Vermeer were starting points for repeated studies.

The title of the exhibition refers to his grandmother Pauline (Kirsti Pauline Strand, 1888–1984), who played a decisive role in the upbringing of Stian and his three siblings in Kragerø. While both parents worked — his mother as a dentist with a practice in their home, and his father with the Civil Defence in Oslo — Pauline was a central caregiver in the household. She appears as a motif in a number of drawings and paintings, several of which are shown in the exhibition.

Around 1993, Grøgaard ended his artistic practice. His interest in theory and philosophy grew, and conceptual art dominated the art scene, leaving little room for figurative expression — a tradition Grøgaard regarded as his only available capability as an artist.

The exhibition is not a retrospective. It presents a carefully selected group of works, spanning the lower floor and extending into the rooms that once housed painting and drawing classes at the former State Academy of Fine Art.

Stian Grøgaard was a historically significant teacher in Norway. At the same time, his works point to other forms of learning — from the artworks that have shaped us, to the care of a grandmother. In this way, the exhibition explores the connections and interdependencies between theory and practice, between teaching and being taught, and between process and finished work.

The exhibition is generously supported by the Bergesen Foundation.

Fritt Ord has supported the public program through its contribution to the Frihetsrommet series.

The exhibition’s curators, Matias Faldbakken and Sarah Lookofsky, wish to thank
Mari Slaattelid and Arve Rød for their collaboration in the planning of the exhibition.