19.11 2006 - 4.2 2007

The tedium of our daily routines, gloom, chill and the slow transition towards brighter days – these are some of the features we associate with the period from November to February. This season, stretching from the one solstice to the next, has inspired us at the museum to make a selection of the works of fifteen artists from among our collections, artists who all find fulfilment in the small gesture, the modest colour range and the representation of the everyday.

Since its opening six and a half years ago the museum has steadily expanded its collection of contemporary Nordic watercolour art. Today the collection comprises the work of ninety artists, all of whom use watercolour technique in varying ways. Traditional watercolour exists here side by side with works which use watercolour either as means of expression or purely as concept.

The artists represented in the exhibition:

Sólveig Adalsteinsdóttir, Iceland· Lennart Alves, Sweden· Anne Katrine Dolven, Norway· Saara Ekström, Finland· Hreinn Fridfinnsson, Iceland· Kristján Gudmundsson, Iceland· Georg Gudni, Iceland· Mats Gustafson, Sweden · Arne Isacsson, Sweden· Lars Lerin, Sweden· Lena Mattsson, Sweden· Palle Nielsen, Denmark· Finnbogi Pétursson, Iceland· Glenn Sorensen, Sweden· Kåre Tveter, Norway

JUKKA KORKEILA, Finland

1.4 - 6.5 2007

Jukka Korkeila, born 1968, is one of the most prominent artists of his generation in Finland, where he also received his training. He studied architecture before specializing in painting, first in
Helsinki and later in Berlin. In his art he has developed a very specific subject matter. The dominant characters in his works are mostly fat men who bear an emblematic character bordering on fetishism. His works also express a very bizarre humour in a world hovering on the borderline between fantasy and reality. They explore masculine sexuality with a cynicism and honesty rarely seen. His watercolours and drawings possess a powerful expression both in colour and painterly structure. Space has always played a major role in his works, and when he began to expand the borders of his painting onto the walls themselves his art became a total visual experience. Jukka Korkeila will be exhibiting works directly on the walls as well as combining those works with watercolours and drawings on paper.

BRITISH WATERCOLOUR 1640 - 1860

18.5 - 9.9 2007

During the summer of 2007 the Nordic Watercolour Museum will be presenting a unique and outstanding exhibition of British watercolours from 1640 to 1860 in cooperation with the Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery in England. This exhibition will enable a fresh audience to appreciate an uniquely British tradition of watercolour landscape painting which is among the
most notable in the world. The Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery possess one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of British watercolours outside London. It is of outstanding quality and is recognised as of national importance.

Artists such as Thomas Girtin (1775-1802), John Robert Cozens (1752-1797), and especially J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851) developed watercolour painting technically, intellectually and emotionally and helped to render it a major art form. Inspired by their efforts were other masters notably John Sell Cotman (1782-1842), Peter De Wint (1784-1849) and David Cox (1783-1859), who similarly pushed the boundaries of the medium still further.

The exhibition consists of 72 exceptional works by 40 artists together with sketchbooks. The exhibition shows many important works which for reasons of conservation are rarely displayed, and is an opportunity for art lovers to enjoy at first hand the tradition, innovation and variety of the art of British watercolour over a period of 220 years. The exhibition will be divided into nine sections where the sources of the British watercolour school will be traced to its maturity in the early 19th century displaying all its major artists from Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1778), J.M.W.Turner, Paul Sandby (1731-1809), Thomas Girtin to William Blake (1757-1827).

TONY CRAGG

23.9 - 18.11 2007

A central theme in Tony Cragg’s art is his interest in the object before him – whether natural or man-made. His sculptures are poetic bearers of a symbolic imagery before which our awareness of the world is jolted and tested anew.

In his early work Cragg made use of items derived from industrially manufactured products, but during the early 80s his interest spread to the use of more traditional materials. In his latest work we see him exploring the relationships between natural materials that adopt synthetic forms and synthetic materials appearing as natural objects. His work stretches the limits of our capacity for appreciating reality, and presents us with a world in which metamorphosis and transformation take place.

In his exhibition at the Nordic Watercolour Museum Tony Cragg will be presenting both sculptures and artworks on paper. Most of the works are new and have not previously been displayed.

Tony Cragg was born in Liverpool in 1949. He abandoned a scientific career for that of an artist. The past 25 years have seen him exhibited on a large scale, winning international renown and represented today in the collections of numerous leading museums. In 1988 he represented England at the Venice Biennial after winning the prestigious Turner Prize the previous year. Today he lives and works in Germany.

CHILDREN’S PICTURE BOOKS

2.12. 2007 - 9.3 2008

On the first Sunday of Advent 2007 the Nordic Watercolour Museum will be opening a major exhibition on the theme of children’s picture books as an art form. This exciting event will present original works illustrating the work of twenty Nordic and international artists of illustrated books, and the period of the exhibition will include a rich programme comprising workshops, guided tours and storytelling for children, theatrical events, music, lectures and seminars as well as days devoted to further study of the topic.

Ever since the first children’s picture books appeared about 150 years ago watercolour techniques have been of importance in creating the original illustrations. And even if today’s use of multi-techniques and digital image processing has transformed the production of illustrated books, watercolour, Indian ink and the application of other water-based paints on paper still have a central role to play for contemporary artists. The selection of works for the exhibition The Children’s Picturebooks presents a wide-ranging overview of the most skilful and creative of contemporary illustrators. Their work reflects the aesthetic, psychological and existential potentials of the children’s illustrated book. The twenty selected – fifteen from the Nordic countries and five from the international scene – combine powerful personal expression with a conscious approach to the trinity which gives the exhibition its name. In our planning of the exhibition we have striven hard that the exhibition galleries
should stimulate the interests of both children and adults and lead to unexpected and exciting meetings between the generations. The unique character and communicative power of the picture book interplay here with the possibilities afforded by the exhibition medium and today’s digital techniques.