Pictures for a New World begins in the early twentieth century, when some of the major modern movements such as Cubism and Futurism paved the way for what would become abstract and non-figurative art. This was a truly exciting period marked by major technological and social advances. A new age called for radical and ambitious art that resonated with the new conditions of modern life. It was in the great cities that things happened, and Nordic artists sought out international environments where entirely new ways of creating images were being explored.
The exhibition highlights artists who distinguished themselves within the experimental formal languages of their time—artists who found new means of expression through art and who remain relevant today. From a Nordic perspective, the exhibition traces a developmental line within modern art that points towards abstract and concrete modes of expression.
The point of departure is the artistic milieu in Copenhagen in the years around the First World War, where a young generation of artists contributed to an experimental and multifaceted Nordic art scene. Here lay the seeds of several of the important artistic movements that followed. After the end of the First World War, borders reopened and Paris once again became the metropolis of the avant-garde. Many Nordic artists were drawn to the vibrant city, and their encounters with a thriving international art world formed the basis for a modern Nordic art that extends into our own time.
The exhibition includes works by key artists such as GAN, Vilhelm Lundstrøm, Ellen Fischer, Thorvald Hellesen, Franciska Clausen, Charlotte Wankel, Erik Olsen, Aage Storstein, Olle Bonnier, Olle Bærtling and Randi Fischer, among many, many others.
About Stories from The Tangen Collection
Pictures for a New World. Stories from The Tangen Collection is part of a larger collaborative project between Kunstsilo and art historian and external curator Steinar Gjessing. Since the 1990s, Gjessing has played a central role as advisor in the development of The Tangen Collection, which today comprises nearly 7,000 works of art. This will also be the first time Kunstsilo presents recent acquisitions from the art collection of business leader Stein Erik Hagen, the Canica Art Collection, for which Gjessing previously served as artistic advisor. These acquisitions—consisting of Nordic modernist art from the period 1910–1970—are now being brought together at Kunstsilo as part of The Tangen Collection. This important expansion adds significant works by key Nordic artists, contributing new dimensions and perspectives to the collection. The broad representation of artistic practices from this period strengthens the collection’s unique position as an unparalleled source of insight into modern Nordic art history.
The three exhibitions included in the collaborative project between Kunstsilo and Gjessing form parts of a larger whole. Together, they present different developmental trajectories within Nordic art throughout the twentieth century, offering a truly grand unveiling of a remarkable contribution to the history of the long-overlooked Nordic modernism.