Explore the macabre, melancholy and sometimes provocative themes that run through aspects of Nordic art.
Featuring over 150 works by 100 artists from the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden), Nordic noir opens with two important prints by Edvard Munch (1863–1944), arguably the most famous artist to emerge from the Nordic region and explores how the graphic arts continued to flourish and evolve after his death. It includes the charming prints of the Norwegian colour woodcut school of the 1940s; Danish prints tackling post-war angst and the threat of the Cold War; and political art from the 1970s in the form of vibrant screenprints by the Norwegian GRAS (Grass) group.
The contemporary Nordic artists represented here delve into the world of Norse myth, struggles with mental health and political issues such as feminism or the rights of the Indigenous Sámi people. The dominant theme for many, however, is nature and the vital urgency to preserve the fjords, mountains and forests unique to the region. One artist who has been extremely vocal on the subject is the Icelandic-Danish artist Olafur Eliasson (b. 1967) who, last year, made an extraordinary watercolour especially for the exhibition using glacial meltwater to highlight the effects of global warming.
The exhibition is a culmination of a five-year project supported by AKO Foundation to acquire graphic works on paper from the Nordic region. It will address the evocative power and haunting beauty of contemporary Nordic art, and how the region’s artists continue to develop the legacy of Munch’s emotional expressiveness and creative inventiveness.
