The northern Europe is mainly composed by the countries in Scandinavian area: Norway, Denmark, and Sweden!!!
Normally, people think the art and philosophy belong to South,while the darkness features the North!!!Actually, the art of North reflects their stormy history. Their art ranges from not only painting, poetry, but also architecture, design.As if the landscape is shaped by glacier, the mind is shaped by nature.
The northern art shares the feature of landscape--hardness, sharpness, clarity, living at the margins, loneliness, and endurance just like the cold piecing wind.
Norway
Edvard Munch's masterpiece become the ghost of itself.
The experience of walking alone in the background of the red sunset falling on the blue black field. It embodies both the personal melancholy, and universal symbol of horror. And it's universally accepted as the modern anxiety.
Norway, a land of frozen hostility, the most sparsely populated area with one third of its land is in North arctic circle. Someone once put it:"The character and history of a nation is expressed by its climate." In Norway, only the ruthless survived!
During the three centuries of Viking raiding, they created articrafts in bronze, iron, gold, and also in wood, mostly are those enigmatic images in North Mythology.
In the early age, their art is featured by Viking ships, the vessel of travel.
The ships are elemental beauty constructed by pure naked engineering. The using of axes and hammers to build is the way only the ones who know the sea and the wood can do. The intrict structure is like the up-side down version of waves by which Vikings sailed all the way to America!!!
At the end of 11th century, the invader became the invaded. Christianity took the North. But Norway was still far from Rome and close to the ancient North Gods.
The wood had a new Christian purpose.
There is a church, a Viking building, of 800 plus years old. The outside looks formidable. The dragons on the roof are the symbol of warding off and roar away evil to keep the house of Gods safe. The inside is airy, romantic wooden structure, the mixture of Christian and Viking art. There is a wooden face of Odin carved on one beam with one eye open, one eye shut.
With the coming Christian, the Viking raids ceased. There was litttle time for art. The priority of people then was to survive!!!
In the 15th century, the "Refermation" period, it's colonised by Danmark who imposed new Prostitant on them.
The art then was featuring in few paintings, few sculptures, more churche building. Simple churches with big windows through which they could gaze their Gods.
There was a man, Olaus, from Vatican published a book full of illustrations of the icy land: always winter, forbiddingly remote and cold, heavily bearded men with high boots, hymn of cold, fish not rot, different shapes of snowflakes, those wild life of the Norwegian sea.
The year 1555 was the year after the Reformation, and during the height of counter-refermation, when people tried to persuade Pope to retake Scandinavia and make it Catholic again.
There is another illustrative form, a map, through which Europeans had known this piece of hostile land for the next 200 years.
In the late 18th century, travellers from Germany, England, and France explored the sublime landscape and experienced the scenes of refrigid winter and recorded the awe-inspiring beauty of it in heir journals.
By the end of Napoleon's Empire, the centuries of rule of this land switched from Danmark into Sweden's hand.
Thus, a wave of patriotic feeling, self-identity surged.
Artists had to be an explorer to reveal this mythical land, to recall the beauty of the landscape.
In the mid-19th century, Romantic Nationalists, the collective term of those painters, emerged. Nationalists because of their pride of unique Norway; Romantic because of their depiction of the Nordic mythology.
While, that culture, after centuries of isolation, was bidding to disappear into the vortex of modern world.
Famine forced people out and into the cities!!! Nearly 50% population left.
1832, Peder Balke, the landscape painter went up the North coast and into the Arctic circle to chart the country for 40 years.
In his paintings, the country is at the bitter end of Scandinavian of itself. So extreme yet elemental nature of this icy land: storm waves, sea churns and wind blows birds.
It seems those paintings are not nostalgic but more political.
Another painter, dubbed as the Scandinavian Van Gogh, is a hyper sensitive young man barely known outside Norway.
In 1852, aged 23, young, raw, awkward, shy, he got the local sponsorship to study overseas.
Unfortunately, a practical joke involving a girl practiced by his peers who bullied him destroyed him. He went to deep depression, and ended up in the first lunatic asylum in Norway. A program of fresh air, exercise, and hard labour failed to cure.
After 18 months of useless treatment, he was sent back to live wih his family. Then, he picked up the paint brush and painted the new and unique kind of the landscape as if the landscape itself goes mad. There is the primitive ancient tone in his paintings, and a kind of fear being presented.
It's not only the landscape, the cityscape had gone change, but also the landscape of mind changed too. The faith had being shaken.
In the mid 19th century, Ibsan, the writer, aged 36, left the country for the next 27 years and returned revered by some and criticised by others. He deals with taboo things such as social conventions. His characters are all ended up being sealed off, died, disappeared into the wild.
He went to a local Cafe everyday. In that cafe, Munch befriended with him and took him as his muse and had a portrait of him sit at the window seat, as if the world is passing by behind him.
They two had the bond that what he meant, Munch set out to paint.
By that time, Monch had been a well-travelled artist. He had a series of paintingsto express the states of mind of Norwegians.
《The Freeze Of Life》in which people figures seem sleepwalking, lost souls, suffering pain of hopeless passion.
In other words, they two are like the writer scratches the surface, Munch rips the cover.
Nowadays Norway, tthehe art of Norway is of landscape, photography, architecture.
But the broken iceburge drifting apart from he shore never far from the bewilderness.
Hardship breeds collectiveness.
The landscape itself is the open-air gallery encouraging people to come, to commune the avant-garde, cutting-edge art in this mythology of nature!!!
Denmark
1834, centre-staged Anderson Park went public to memorate the famous storyteller.But the fairytales Anderson tells have their dark side.
Actually, through it's history, Danmark did go through dark era and broken dream.
The art of Danmark is about hunting, about the duckling delongs to be a swan.
In the 17th century, Danmark was ruled by a proud and the most powerful King--Christin IV who has two wives, both of them are prolifically accepted: the first one gave him 7 kids in 9 years, and the second one gav0e him 11 kids!!!
The great King travelled a lot. Having seen so many splendid architectures around, he wants his own.
To build his own great Palace, he imported all the artists. The grandiose Palace is imposing from outside, and stunning from within!!!
Next is the Anderson's age.
Anderson is the son of a shoemaker, living in the middle area of Danmark. His mother washes clothes for the King. He sometimes plays with the future King. He had read a lot before he went to school. He likes Shakespeare he most for he thinks Shakespeare 's plays are the bloodiest!!!
His stories can also be interpreted as social satire. There are two Danmarks: one for the rich, and one for the poor. His heroes rise from humble origins. Behind his tales, there is a new Danmark emerging, in making!!!
In Anderson's conservation studio his own art--paper cut is safely kept under lock and key. Such word for mute is another form of his art.
If Anderson is the heart of Danmark, Nicholai is the mind.
A humble preis, he advocated education. Everyone, boy or girl, should have the chance to learn. Education should be their birthmark.
He organized the Dennish Society which opened every Tuesday to everyone. People from all walks of life came to his meeting with enthusiasm. His was the shift to the society.
A icelandic immigrated 11-year-old boy etablished his fame by his sculptures(in Rome at first). There is a great temple of him in the downtown area in Copenhagan.
It's the cutting wood for his father in his childhood that arouse his interest and talent in sculpture.
Torwalson combined Greece and Roman style to make his own. His works have the image of static beauty, and his output is unparalleled. He has his own statue--the image of pragmatic Scandinavian.
The year of 1849 marks Denmark at the crossroads. Just few years after Torwalson's museum opened.
The painting 《Jason and Golden Fless》shows that if there is one nation can reincarnate Greek and Rome, it is Denmark!!! This was the national statement of Denmark, the image of Denmark itself.
Denmark was moving forward.
Christopher built the grand Walmard castle.
In the middle of 19th century, Denamrk was in the chuckle of the past.
1864 is the year of disaster for Denmark. Mother Danmark's sons pay the price.
Denmark was defeated in that crashing, bloody war!!! It's the scar in the national memory.
Before 1864, we were big country, we were hero; after 1864, we are lost. About 800,000 were killed in two hours. We went through a big country to a small one not only in terretory but also in mindset!!!
It's the contrast of bright ideal and hush reality, a mixture of light and dark.
In the last years of 19th century
Mothewee, in his silver age, besotted and beguiled, paints the landscape of this country. He built the visual equivalent of sense of terror in His snapshot of daily life. His paintings are not screaming. He is whispering.
After the year 1864, those subjects of painting were switched to interiors which reflects the state of mind of Dennish people: more introvert, silence, focus on intrict things.
In the 20th century, it's as if Denmark turns away from the world, stay out of trouble.
Villages dotted all around the country are more self-sufficient, clinging into their own fairytale world. They AR safe from fires that may burn else where.
The national psych is Denmark was occupied, was defeated, and we are neutral; we are common men and women.
The little villages at the celebration of the peaceful domestic life, the beauty of small.
The safest country in the world.
Nsow it's the LEGO, a statement about the way Danmark works.
The LEGO is Denmark's biggest globle export.
The LEGO is the opposit of digital device, a slew to screen.
The "play well" in LEGO forged a global imperialism, a benign one. Put together, we can create something good, cozy, comfortable.
In modern Denmark, design is the core.
Design for modern ordinary home--an elevated love for small.
The Dennish modern furniture is comfortable, affordable. Simple, part practical part sculpture, the furniture for all.
For Dennish people, small equals to beauty. It seems that staying small suits Denmark.
There is a perish church of Nicolai in suburn Copenhagen. The bricks to build it equal to Dennish population. A cathedral for everyone. It's just like the woody LEGO.
One quote from a Dennish scholar: People are not apes to ape himself or others!!!
Sweden
1628, August 10th, a ship sank on her maiden voyage.1961, the whole ship relics were pick out of the sea. A museum dedicated to this ship(wasa) was set at Stockholm. A hard-back to Sweden, a monument to failure.
By scrutinizing this ship, despite the double gun decks, encrusted ornaments, the impracticablly high centre of gravity is the fatal point.
It was built to rival Spain, Britain, and France, but now it's just the biggest ship in the bottle.
Making it is the art of Sweden. And it reflects the social and artistic experiment in modern Sweden history. While others were dreaming of a world, in Sweden, they show the way.
The Industrial Revolution had its tentacle towards Sweden much later than it had been conducted in other European countries. But Sweden got its catchup with the world and America in the late 20th century.
A palace dwelled by the royal family. The fourth son of the King, Prince Ugin, also nicknamed the "Red Prince", arranged by the Queen Sophia, had himself educated overseas accessing to Bohemian artistics, charismatic library, and democratic ideology. He is also famous for being the artist and the painter, though he was reluctant to recognize that he is the serious artist.
In 1905, he was inaugurated. He, then, held a dinner inviting all the artists, composors, painters, intellecturals.
He has the collection of the range of the Scandinavian time.
At the turn of the 20th century, this uncertainty and fear for future, which can be seen in those sinister light in portraits, was shared by other artists.
Humanity was regressing instead of progressing.
See the 《Silence》by Richard Bergh
1907, August Strindburge, the playwriter, created a new form of theatre: the ceiling yellow, the walls green, and the seats were in rows and just next to the stage. He was claiming to do away from the barrier seperating the audience and performance. The audience is not watching the show. They can be changed by the show.
As for the painting part, the 《Ocean》is so changeable, volatile.
He doesn't like to talk about weather. Such element paintings are beyond actual storm.
He said he was just like the crayfish shedding its shell.
People were worrying it's hard to live in his world of electricity and other industrial driven media.
Since 1920s onwards, Sweden has become the leading role in architecture, design. Ingenious design.
There is the cabinet, which won the price in the world industrial exhibition in Paris in 1925, by emphasing on wooden line, fully reflects the simplicity of design. With that simple wooden exterior, the interior is the most important part--bronze arch. The interior shows the second empire opulence,sober, and humanly high.
Thus, Sweden opened a new chapter, a new value system, a new world.
The functionalism: the simplicity, the function, the necessity. To layout their goals.
His manufactural functionalism reflects intellectual hygiene.
In 1930s, under the social Democratic dream, the collective housing was laid out.
The new district of houses in suburb Stockholm looked like factory or warehouse with ocean liner looking and big windows. The natural elements, like the sunshine, should be harnessed for good for everyone. This is the flat pack esthetics.
His was a more grandeur, progressing development.
"House is the home, body is the temple!!!" Sweden people adopt healthy concept of clean living: diet, regular excise, plenty sunshine. The clean living phylosophy.
In 1960s, lots of districts were built. There is the sports hall, marble from Norway and designer from Danmark, has the outside of flat roof, big windows, straight lines; but the inside is an amphitheatre. What a symbol of health in a well-functioned society.
Yet, there emerged cracks.
1965, Sweden seems get into the rebellion stage.
Some radical writer's works had been adapted into films and TV dramas.
A detective in a TV drama, Beck, having bad diet, chain-smoking, marriage problem, and his slow solution into crime, was like the fresh air then.
1975, social Democratic lost power after half of the century leading this country, which lead to an unequal society. The gap between rich and poor was widen. Those disaffected, alienated Sweden was projected into visual art.
Lots of graffiti- the art born in NewYork, Nordic graffiti, boasting conter-culture identity, hopeless labyrinth, can be seen in the streets, bars, restaurants, etc.
And live performance of psycho, problem of race, immigration, slave trade~~~
Munch painted a portrait of Straindburg, the playwright.
Modernism,punters, act out the anxiety. They shared a profound alienation.
Travelling by subway to the suberbs, even a simple seat at the station has its elegance in design. Even if there is any falling short exists in Sweden, it's because it's been magnified.
A very modern designed swimming pool with a mushroom-shaped viewing platform in the outer suberbs reminds people that even ther is the cloud of uncertainty hovered overhead, ther is the promise for everyone that a little bit of beauty and a little bit of happiness.
Just the roughest outline from the Documentary The Art Of Scandinavia
Just find this painting which may depict the bleak scene of a dead bear in snowy bitting winter!!!
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