ADELSTEEN NORMANN IN A NEW LIGHT
A Collaboration with Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum
To highlight Adelsteen Normann’s artistic work, the exhibition ‘Impressionist of the North’ will be organised as part of the ongoing collaboration between the Nordic Institute of Art (NIA) and Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum (NNKM – Northern Norway Art Museum), taking place at the museum’s new location in Bodø in autumn 2025.
Eilert Adelsteen Normann (1848–1918) was born on Vågøya in Bodin (today part of Bodø municipality). After initial studies in Copenhagen, he pursued an artistic career, moving to Düsseldorf in 1870 to study at the Academy of Art. Normann became known for his coastal landscapes of Northern and Western Norway, though he also painted urban scenes. By 1887, he had settled in Berlin and gained international recognition. As one of the first professional painters from Northern Norway, Normann played a key role in bringing his home region’s landscapes to a European audience.
Recent scholarship, including that of Anne Aaserud (1942–2017), places Normann’s work within emerging early modernist movements such as Realism, Impressionism, and Post-Impressionism. Normann was aligned with progressive artists of his time and played a pivotal role in Edvard Munch’s career, ensuring his controversial 1892 exhibition in Berlin, which led to Munch’s international breakthrough and eventually the establishment of the Berlin Secession.
Adelsteen Normann: Impressionist of the North will offer new perspectives on Normann’s oeuvre, placing him in a broader art historical context. In conjunction with the exhibition, a seminar featuring relevant and international viewpoints on Adelsteen Normann's work will take place.
The exhibition, curated by NIA’s Dr. Knut Ljøgodt, will feature some 50 of Normann’s paintings as well as a series of his drawings. A selection of works by his contemporaries will also be included, to contextualise his oeuvre.
The exhibition will be based on the major collections of Normann’s work in Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum and Adelsteen Normann Stiftelsen (the Adelsteen Normann Foundation) in Bodø. The artist is further represented in several other museums and collections in Norway and internationally.
A Collaboration with Stavanger Art Museum
In an ongoing collaboration with Stavanger Art Museum, the Nordic Institute of Art will focus on the oeuvre of Lars Hertervig in a national and international context. Through exhibitions, publications, scholarship and seminars, we aim at cooperation with especially academic and curatorial communities, including museums and other research institutions.
Lars Hertervig (1830–1902) grew up on the island of Borgøy on the south-west coast of Norway, a landscape which would become a recurring theme in Hertervig’s art. At an early stage, he moved with his family to the city of Stavanger, where he became a painter’s apprentice. Hertervig attended the Royal Drawing School in Christiania (today’s Oslo), before moving to Düsseldorf in the early 1850s to study under the Norwegian painter Hans Fredrik Gude, who was a professor at the Art Academy. Hertervig’s works emerge from a romantic tradition while offering a personal and at times unsettling interpretation of nature.
Hertervig was diagnosed with mental illness and faced marginalisation from society and the art world; however, he continued to create visionary landscapes, often working in isolation on his home island of Borgøya, and in Stavanger. His alleged "madness" liberated him from conventional artistic norms, allowing him to develop experimental styles that we may claim positioned him within the early avant-garde of Modern art.
Although he is recognized in Norway as a central nineteenth-century artist, he remains relatively overlooked internationally. Through our ongoing project, the Nordic Institute of Art and Stavanger Art Museum aim to bring greater visibility to Hertervig's contributions and ensuring his legacy resonates not only nationally, but also in the wider world.
Stavanger Art Museum holds a major collection of Hertervig’s works, featuring some 70 pieces, including paintings, watercolors, and drawings. Important holdings also reside in the National Museum, Oslo, and KODE Art Museums and Composer Homes in Bergen.
LARS HERTERVIG IN INTERNATIONAL CONTEXT
Gamle Furutrær, (1865), Lars Hertervig, Stavanger Kunstmuseum.
Photo: Myrestrand, Dag / Stavanger Kunstmuseum.
BERGSLIEN KUNSTMUSEUM
Bergslien Kunstmuseum (Bergslien Art Museum) is an organisation founded to establish an art museum dedicated to the works of artists Knud Bergslien and Brynjulf Bergslien in their hometown of Voss, Western Norway. The institution will showcase the works of the two artists and aims to highlight their position in Norwegian art history.
Knud Larsen Bergslien (1827–1908) was a painter who, from 1849 to 1852, studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp under Laurentius Dyckmann. Brynjulf Larsen Bergslien (1830–1898), brother of the former, was a sculptor who studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen in the 1850s, where he worked with J.A. Jerichau and H.W. Bissen.
Both artists were interested in Nordic mythology and history as well as folk-life traditions and were central to Norwegian cultural life in the second half of the 19th century. Despite this, only a few of their works are currently on show in Norwegian museums today.
The Nordic Institute of Art collaborates with Bergslien Kunstmuseum to establish a permanent institution that aims to widen the knowledge of and scholarship on Knud Bergslien and Brynjulf Bergslien, while further contributing to our understanding of Scandinavian art and history in the 19th century.
In parallel tothis project, Voss Sparebank Kunstsamling (Voss Bank Art Collection) is building an important collection focused on the two artists, including Knud Bergslien’s iconic painting “Birkebeinerne (Skiing Birchlegs Crossing the Mountain with the Royal Child)” (1869), which was unveiled at the inaugural Bergslien Seminar on August the 30th 2024.
Knud Bergslien, Birkebeinerne (1869),
Bergslien Kunstmuseum/Voss Sparebank Kunstsamling
Photo: Morten Henden Aamot
CATALOGUE RAISONNÉ
Melchor Pérez Holguín (1665 - 1735)
Melchor Pérez Holguín (Aprox. 1665-1735) was a painter active in Potosí in the Audiencia de Charcas, present day Bolivia. He is considered one of the most original and important artists emerging on the South American continent during Spanish colonial reign. Art historian Joakim W. Olañeta Borda-Pedreira is in charge of a complete and critical study of the artist's extant œvre, as well as a survey on his close disciples and studio production. An in-depth discussion on attribution and style along with recent technical findings will guide the publication. The book will contain almost 200 works
This publication will be a welcome contribution to the knowledge of this artist's work and key to understand his style and cronology, as well as dispell some myths and superficial attributions that flourish in both academia and the art market.
The autor accepts submissions of work for consideration, which might be included after proper evaluation. Contact holguin.catalogue@nordicart.org
Language: English. Due for publishing 2026-27.
In Spanish: Melchor Pérez Holguín (Aprox. 1660-1732) fue un pintor activo en Potosí en la Audiencia de Charcas, hoy territorio de Bolivia. Es considerado uno de los artistas más originales e importantes que emergieron en Sudamérica durante la colonia española. El historiador de arte Joakim W. Olañeta Borda-Pedreira está a cargo de un estudio completo y crítico de la obra existente de este artista, el primer catálogo rasonado dedicado a la obra de Melchor Pérez Holguín y sus discípulos. El libro incluirá una discussion a fondo sobre el estilo y las atribuciones de Holguín, con intencion de dispersar algunos mitos e incorrecciones acerca del artista que florecen tanto en el ámbito académico como en el comercio de arte.
El autor acepta propuestas de obras que podrán ser incluídas posterior a un debido estudio. Contacto: holguin.catalogue@nordicart.org
Idioma: inglés. Fecha de publicacíon aprox. 2026-27.
Melchor Pérez Holguín: San Francisco meditando (1694), oil on canvas, 168 x 114 cm.
Museo Nacional de Arte, La Paz.
CATALOGUE RAISONNÉ
Peder Balke (1804 - 1887)
The Norwegian painter Peder Balke (1804 – 1887) is one of the most outstanding painters of the Romantic movement in Northern Europe. A journey to the northernmost parts of Scandinavia in 1832 came to haunt his works with visions of the sublime Arctic landscape throughout his artistic career. Travelling widely, Balke encountered some of the leading artists and intellectuals of 19th century Europe. His mentors, the Swedish painter Carl Johan Fahlcrantz and the Norwegian artist Johan Christian Dahl, as well as the German Romantic Caspar David Friedrich, were all of importance – though Balke eventually would develop his own, highly individual and experimental manner of painting. The artist – himself of humble origin and a dedicated social reformer who sympathized with the early labour movement – was patronized by royalty and discerning collectors. In Paris in the late 1840s, he received a large commission from King Louis-Philippe.
Despised by contemporary critics and marginalized by art historians and institutions, Balke’s art was gradually resurrected in his native Norway during the 20th century. It is only recently, however, that he has become an internationally recognised artist.
In 2020, the Nordic Institute of Art published a new monograph on the artist in collaboration with Skira. It was authored by Dr. Knut Ljøgodt and based on the Peder Balke works in The Gundersen Collection, the largest existing collection of the artist. In addition, the Nordic Institute of Art and Knut Ljøgodt has co-organized several exhibitions of Balke’s works. Dr. Ljøgodt is a leading expert on the artist and is currently working on a catalogue raisonné on this prolific 19th century painter.
Peder Balke is further represented in the Musée du Louvre, Paris, National Museum, Oslo, KODE Art Museums and Composer Homes, Bergen, The National Gallery, London, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, Gothenburg Art Museum, Gothenburg, SMK – National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen, as well as other public and private collections in Scandinavia, Europe and the USA.
Editor in chief and author: Knut Ljøgodt
Researcher: Ann Falahat
To be launched in 2028.
Peder Balke: From Vardøhus Fortress, (1860's). The Gundersen Collection
CATALOGUE
Visionary Romantics. Balke, Lucas, Hertervig
By Knut Ljøgodt & Carlos Sanchez Díez (eds.)
The catalogue was published in connection to the exhibition Visionary Romantics at the Museo Lázaro Galdiano, spring 2023 Madrid, and Stavanger Art Museum, automn 2023. The book and exhibition brings together works by three Romantic artists: the Norwegians Peder Balke
(1804–1887) and Lars Hertervig (1830–1902), and the Spaniard Eugenio Lucas Velázquez (1817–1870). Drawing a parallel between their respective landscapes, they show how these artists captured their inner visions of
nature through experimental techniques that to an extent foreshadowed the loose manner of Impressionism and other modern painting movements.
A parallell edition in Spanish was published simultaneaously.
Authors: Knut Ljøgodt, Carlos Sánchez Díez, Begoña Torres González, Inger M.L Gudmundson, Hanne Beate Ueland
Published: Centro de Estudios Europa Hispánica, 2023
Language: English
Price: € 36.54
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