Tun og vassdrag

18.04.98 – 31.05.98

Tun og vassdrag - Telemarks typologier

About the exhibition

A collaborative project between Kunstnernes Hus in Oslo and Telemark County Gallery in Notodden. The background was a decision by the board of Kunstnernes Hus to create an exhibition in which solid and popular Norwegian landscape painting from the mid-twentieth century would be placed side by side with more recent Norwegian photography, where the landscape was understood and interpreted in a manner distinct from that of the paintings. The scope was further refined, and the choice fell on Telemark – the county with the most pronounced and longstanding tradition of landscape painting, but also one possessing an extensive body of photographic material. Øivind Storm Bjerke, director of the Norwegian Museum of Photography – Preus Fotomuseum, served as guest curator and developed the exhibition concept in its entirety.

From the catalogue

"We have sought to examine how the well-known Telemark paintings stand as an expression of the desire to strengthen and preserve a way of life centred on the farm. Telemark has, in our century, been perceived as the quintessentially Norwegian landscape. The county stretches from the sea, through agricultural villages and mountain communities, up towards the Hardangervidda plateau. Parts of inland Telemark have historically been quite isolated areas, allowing both productive life and cultural expression to remain distinctive and well-preserved during a period that otherwise saw the great transformation of Norwegian society. The farmstead – main house, barn, cowshed, loft and storehouse, organised around an open courtyard – has provided a particular framework for life. This has been especially well preserved in Telemark, due in part to a strong sense of tradition among the local population and the advantage of a relatively dry climate, which has allowed older timber buildings to survive and remain in use to this day.

(...)

A focus on the waterfall can be found in both photographs and paintings from the significant period of hydropower development in Norway. In the course of our research we have encountered interesting parallels between anonymously taken photographs and commissioned paintings produced for Norsk Hydro by, among others, Thorolf Holmboe. There are also some highly interesting hand-coloured drawings by Theodor Kittelsen, commissioned directly by Sam Eyde. These offer a very characteristic expression of the demystification that occurs when the troll of the waterfall is tamed and its power is channelled into pipes. This painting has become a central part of the exhibition.

The exhibition brings together a number of highly popular paintings and photographs in Norwegian art history, which alongside relatively unknown and little-exhibited material will make it possible to shed new light on and identify entirely new perspectives in the understanding both of a central tradition within Norwegian landscape painting over the past hundred years, and of a body of photographic material that is precise and largely free of romanticism."