A Mirror Of Nature
Lake Keitele, Akseli Gallen-Kallela, 1905More culture this week-end, in the form of an art exhibit at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, featuring Nordic landscape painting, 1840-1910. A warm summer's day is a good time to chill out with some cool Scandinavian Art. With over one hundred paintings from all the Nordic countries, there was a definite sense of restraint and naturalism on display- counter to the romantic styles often seen from this era. There were even a couple of small works by Thórarinn Thorláksson from Iceland. This kind of art grows on you slowly, there were few "theatrical" pieces, but overall there was a very subdued approach on display, with just a hint of drama beneath the surface. There were some, however, that definitely had a definite psycholgical undercurrent:
Stetind in Fog, Peder Balke, 1864This is the only non-Scandinavian stop in the exhibit's schedule, and a most welcome contrast to the Picassco exhibit, currently showing at the Walker Art Center.
4 Comments:-
Darien Fisher-Duke said...
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ECS said...
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ECS said...
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Professor Batty said...
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Love the Gallen-Kallela! What a beautiful piece.
At the National Gallery of Art last week I asked the security guard in one of the galleries if I could take a picture. No, he replied, you can't take a picture... But, you may take a photograph. Ha!
Now it is much easier to play our favorite game. When my husband and I visit a museum we each get to choose the picture we would take home if we could. I often wish I had a postcard of each picture we have selected for our "personal gallery" over the years. Now, with my little digital camera, it is easy to record our choices--at least, in the museums where photography is permitted!
was that first painting borrowed from a museum in Boston/Cambridge? I'm quite sure I had a postcard of it on my door in college.
nevermind.. just looked it up and now I remember seeing the painting in London and spending quite a lot of time with it. In those rooms of rococo exuberance, it was a wonderfully peaceful place!
... there's something to be said for the Scandinavian sensibility in the arts- of course, that's why we're here (in Icelandic-affiliated blogs), I suppose?
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