The Weidemann Collection

See some of Jacob Weidemanns paintings in our photo gallery.

The Weidemann Collection at the Ringebu Vicarage

The Weidemann Collection consists of 42 works by one of Norway’s foremost artists – Jakob Weidemann. A selection of works from the Collection, now owned by the Lillehammer Kunstmuseum, is exhibited every summer at Ringebu Vicarage. The 2007 Summer Exhibition will also show works by artists of the Hald family.

The Collection contains works from most periods of Weidemann’s complex artistic life, with the oldest of these dating to his years as a young art student in the early 1940s. Some – extremely colourful and strongly contrasted abstract figures and landscapes – were shown at his first exhibition (Blomquist 1946). This same period is represented by some purely abstract, Picasso-inspired works, while those from the ‘50s are for the most part characteristic still lifes and some fine landscapes from Norway, Italy and France. One important series by Weidemann is the so-called “Woodland-floor Series” (“Skogbunnsbildene”) from the early 1960s. Several characteristic examples of these abstract, lyrical-natural compositions with their dark, impasto pigments, can be found in the Collection. A work in tempera dates to this same period. However, it is Weidemann’s easily recognized works from the 1980s and ‘90s that make up the main portion of the Collection, and these shimmering, abstract compositions are probably what the public most often associate with his name.

Jakob Weidemann (1923-2001)
Jakob Weidemann is regarded as one of Norway’s most important artists of the post-war modernistic tradition. He was one of several young artists of this period who broke with the traditional, figurative style of painting that up to then had completely dominated our national pictorial art. The group was inspired by Continental modernism and for many years, Weidemann experimented unrestrainedly with its artistic effects. Abstract French art was of especially great influence for his mature style, but he has himself said that during these first years, he stole like a magpie from anyone and anything he felt could contribute to a liberation of his artistic expression. Weidemann, in other words, varied his style of painting and artistic idiom many times in what seemed an apparently restless quest. He shifted effortlessly between powerful figurative paintings and purely abstract compositions, and it is not difficult to find obvious models for his work of this period. Among Norwegians these would be Kaj Fjell and Arne Ekeland, the artists’ group COBRA and, especially, Pablo Picasso.

He may first have found his own and very characteristic “voice” in connection with the great series, the “Woodland-floor series”, which he began in 1959. Here we find an artist who seems to have returned to his roots and literally focussed his eye on the depths of the Norwegian landscape. The paintings are made up of large, pure-coloured surfaces in deep and saturated shades. In many cases, these are huge and heavy paintings on which pigment has been applied in thick layers with a palette knife and similar rough tools. Early in life, Jakob Weidemann had been praised for his obvious artistic talents and had achieved a leading position among the younger artists. With his exhibition “Woodland-floor series” in Kunstnernes Hus, Norway’s largest artist-run gallery, in 1961, he suddenly gained status as a modernizer of Norwegian art. This exhibition is generally regarded as being abstract art’s definite breakthrough in our country.

In 1965, Jakob Weidemann received a commission to decorate the church in his home town of Steinkjer. He painted a large, abstract composition with broad and sweeping brushstrokes and dripping pigments on the wall behind the alter. In addition, he did the sketches for the eleven large stained-glass windows that were produced by Annar Millidahl. It has been assumed that the work with the stained-glass windows played an important role in the transformation of his style that occurred in the following years. Here, an artistic treatment of light itself became the artist’s main objective. As in the “Woodland-floor series”, nature remained his most important source of inspiration, but from this point onwards, he focussed more on the pervasion of light in nature. Weidemann often commented on his fascination with the magical effect of light in springtime, when he felt special interest for the striving of delicate wild flowers towards the light. In his tribute to another great painter of light, the famous Greek-Spanish painter El Greco, he said, “Light is free and pure, never familiar nor trodden upon. It is always unsullied.”

Jakob Weidemann was born a “natural” child and grew up in relative poverty. He joined the resistance forces during WWII, was arrested, but escaped to Sweden. Here he was the victim of an accident which he believed himself must have had great influence on his later artistic development. An explosive charge blew up in such a way that he was blinded. It was only after a lengthy stay in a hospital, and three operations, that he regained his sight, but then only in the left eye. The experience of being blind made a deep impression on him and must have been decisive for the direction his art was later to take – towards “an explosion of colour and light”. One of the paintings he completed late in life was entitled “The Eye in Nature”. This is, of course, a both ambiguous and poetic title, but it could be associated with the eye that was lost.

Weidemann was in many ways a lone wolf in the cultural life of Norway. He was naturally stubborn and uncompromizing in his art. He was one of the very few avant-gardists fostered by our country and was quickly taken up by its cultural elite. Despite this, he showed a striking lack of conceit. Myths about him (and they are many) relate that he preferred to mix with ordinary people rather than associate with intellectual snobs and those he scornfully called “culture-crones”. This may explain the apparently paradoxical in this modernistic nonconformist becoming one of our most popular artists.

In 1968, the artist moved with his wife, Anne, to Ringsveen Farm in Lillehammer. Weidemann donated the property to the Ringsveen Trust in 1999 which administers the farm. In keeping with Weidemann’s express wish, it is now a place where young artists can live and work.

Exhibitions
Jakob Weidemann was a diligent and very popular exhibitor throughout his career with numerous exhibitions both at home and abroad. Among his more important exhibitions are Paris in 1963, the Bienniale in Venice as Norway’s representative in 1966, New York in 1984 and Berlin in 1986. He was Official Exhibitor at the Bergen Festival in both 1965 and 1973, and had major exhibitions at the Henie-Onstad Kunstsenter, Oslo, in 1970, 1975, 1982 and 1996.

Architectural decorations
He has received many commissions for architectural decoration. Among the most well-known are Alf Bjerckes Fabrikker, Alnabru in Oslo (1960); Norsk Hydro’s headquarters building in Oslo (1960-61); Steinkjer Church (1965); Maihaugen Museum in Lillehammer (1967); Alfaset Chapel in Oslo (1971); the M/S Royal Viking Sea (1973).

Weidemann in Norwegian museums
In addition to the large collection at the Lillehammer Kunstmuseum, Weidemann’s works may be found in numerous other Norwegian museums.

Museet for Samtidskunst, Oslo. This national museum of contemporary art owns 19 works, among them the two early works ”Interior” and ”Self-portrait” from 1942, and an important work dated to the early 1950s – ”The United Nations”, inspired by the artist Arne Ekeland.

Henie-Onstad Kunstsenter, Høvikodden, Bærum, owns several important works by Weidemann. Among these are “The Capercaillie flies off” (a major work from the “Woodland-floor” period) and the monumental works of the 1960s, “The Road to Jerusalem”, “The Crown of Thorns”, “Fog in Gethsemane” and “Hommage à El Greco”. A typical work dated to his later years – “Blue Rage” – is also at Høvikodden.

The Stenersen Museum, Oslo, owns several early and important works by Weidemann, such as “Studio Interior”, “Insane”, “Flag-raising/Liberation”, “Partisan”, “The Seaman’s Widow”, “The Steelworker”, “Petrushka”, and “The Stone Sculpture”. The collection at the museum is part of Rolf Stenersen’s generous gift to the Municipality of Oslo. Rolf Stenersen was Weidemann’s loyal friend and patron.

The Astrup Fearnley Museum, Oslo, owns a large and important Weidemann – “The Apple-tree and the Rainbow” from 1964.