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4/10/2012

Olav Christopher Jenssen

MARTa Herford Museum of Art and Design, Herford

Roland Nachtigäller, Artistic Director
Dr. Michael Kröger, Curator

In keeping with the dark season, this autumn Marta Herford is holding a festival of colour.
The museum will be hosting the first extensive individual exhibition in Germany in the last ten years by the Norwegian artist Olav Christopher Jenssen. Alongside a comprehensive overview of his works, two new series by the documenta artist (1992) will also be on show. Despite being fêted internationally for his artistic activity spanning 25 years, in Germany he is almost only known to insiders.

“I know exactly what I am doing, and at the same time I don’t understand a thing.” Olav Christopher Jenssen

Because Olav Christopher Jenssen knows exactly what he is doing but not always exactly why, he has become a “serial offender”. Not only that he often works simultaneously on more than ten pictures, he returns again and again to his series, allowing up to six years to pass before he declares a picture finished, then is astonished to find that a work can contain up to nine colour and picture layers. Then, as a logical consequence of this, he develops another series, in which these layers are placed alongside each other rather than on top of each other. A master of the tradition of abstraction, Jenssen does “not intend to say anything, but is delighted when people discover things in his work.”

The opulent exhibition at the Marta Herford, does not follow any particular chronological principle, but is an invitation to attend a special meeting of pictures. Individual series are shown in their “familiar” environment, allowing the viewer to make the links as he chooses. In the impressive rooms of the Gehry building, sculpture, drawing and painting enter into inspir- ing relationships and are condensed to form abstract narratives between memory, conquest and association. The “enigma” becomes a cheerful search for clues, full of light, colour and new starts, a search for the inner necessity of the pictures.

Olav Christopher Jenssen is represented in all of the main collections worldwide. The MoMa in New York, the Collection Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, the Nasjonalmuseet in Oslo, the KIASMA in Helsinki, the British Museum in London and some important German institutions all own important works by him. Of the numerous private collections, we mention only that of the Queen of Norway, whose loan has made a radiant contribution to this exhibition. The first retrospective exhibition in Germany was at the Kunstmuseum Bonn in 2003. The Haus am Waldsee presented three years of Jenssen’s work to the public in 2008. In 1992 Jenssen was a participating artist at the documenta 9 directed by Jan Hoet. In 1996 he succeeded Sigmar Polke as professor at the College of Creative Arts, and since 2007 he has been teaching as a professor for painting at the College of Art in Braun- schweig.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a comprehensive, themed framework program as well as educational offers for all age and target groups.

Catalogue
A 208-page catalogue (German/English) with numerous colour pictures and dust cover will be released for the exhibition by Kerber Verlag 32 Euro at the museum counter

Press contact: Gwendolin Ross ‫ ׀‬Johanna Puchta
Telefon: +49 (0) 5221-99 44 30-27 ‫ ׀‬Telefax: +49 (0) 5221-99 44 30-18 ‫ ׀‬presse@marta-herford.de

Press conference on Thursday, 4 October 2012, at 11.00 hrs
Opening on Friday, 5 October 2012, at 19.30 hr

Marta Herford
Goebenstraße 2–10, D-32052 Herford
Opening times
Tue – Sun and public holidays 11–18 hrs
1st Wednesday/month 11.00–21.00 hrs
Entrance fee:
7 Euro, concessions 4.50 Euro, families 15 Euro, groups as of 10 persons 4.50 Euro/person, school groups as of 6th grade 1.50 Euro/Person, admission free for children under 10 years, pupils and students on Tuesdays from 16.00 to 18.00 hrs, with Wittekindpass, Deutsche Bank ArtCard and D.A.CH. art card, on the first Wednesday every month from 18.00 to 21.00 hrs

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