calendario eventi  :: 

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23/5/2003

Two exhibitions

Malmo Konsthall, Malmo

Nina Roos
24 May - 24 August, 2003

Nina Roos's painting has alternated between the figurative ' tangibly and physically ' and a form of expression which conveys the state of things. In her pictorial world, all concepts of time ' past, present, future, tempo, infinity ' are bound together in a 'manufactured' existence which cannot be tied down to a linear time axis. We are put to the test, our presence is demanded so we can try new ways of seeing, in order to share in the worlds, places and time that exist in her images.

Nina Roos continually establishes new positions in her painting and tries to find new problems. But this is more than a method, it has to do with the fact that the different 'places' which her pictures represent demand different appearances. They make up groups, which, when they are read together and compared, can give a concept of periodicity in her painting.

Time is in a state of flux in Nina Roos's pictures. A form, a body, a face is something which is pervaded by time ' the present which transforms into the past and which we convince ourselves will occur for all eternity as a continually forward-flowing 'now'. Our impatience deceives us into a defective synchronisation with the times in which we live ' mentally we find ourselves in the future ' often by giving us visual representations of what is to come.

In her works Nina Roos has explored different materials, painting surfaces and forms of expression. The zinc plate with its impenetrable physical surface was replaced in the mid-90s by the see-through clarity of the acrylic panel.

Nina Roos is one of the most well-known artists in Finland and the Nordic region, and has a long list of exhibitions around the world in recent years. Venues for her most recent solo exhibitions include Galleri K in Oslo in 2003, Bergen Kunsthall in Bergen in 2002 and Kiasma in Helsinki in 2001, as well as the dialogue exhibition of Nina Roos and Paula Modersohn-Becker at Brandts Klædefabrik in Odense in 1998. Examples of her many joint exhibitions are Sur Face at Lunds Konsthall in 2001, the 1998 Carnegie Art Award and the 1995 Venice Biennale.

Nina Roos was born in 1956 in Borgå, Finland. She lives and works in Helsinki. After studying at the University of Helsinki in 1975 to 79 and at the International Art School in Stockholm, she studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki from 1983 to 88.

From 1996 to 2001 she taught at the Malmö Art Academy, Lund University in Malmö and in 1998 also at the Royal University College of Fine Arts in Stockholm. She is currently a professor of painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki.

In the image: Second Space (internering) from Scenarios. 1999.

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Carl Fredrik Hill
24 May - 24 August, 2003

Carl Fredrik Hill draws the viewer into exotic and magnificent environments in a series of pictures drawn in ink or Indian ink on brown wrapping paper, known as cartridge paper. Hill draws palaces and temple interiors, held up by forests of columns and featuring halls filled with a crowd of figures. The people are naked or dressed in the floor-length robes of antiquity. There are wild animals: several times Hill puts tigers in rows beside each other or allows to play and fight among themselves or with other felines. Sometimes the scenes are watched over by animal tamers or the gods and rulers of antiquity, which Hill has represented in the shape of colossal sculptures. The pictures are often filled with lively movement and drama. There are battle scenes: riders force their way into the pictures and conquer or are hurled to the ground, and hawkers are driven from the temple; but many times there are also intense images of reconciliation, dreams, the power of music and the greatness of Parnassus.

The pictures are characterised by Hill's restless state of mind. Diagnosed as insane and more or less isolated in his parents' home in Lund, Hill pursued an artistic path which led in a completely different direction than the landscape painting he had previously done for a few short years in Paris and France.

The inspiration for this peculiar and fascinating pictorial world during his period of illness came in part from memories of the museums he had visited. In a number of instances it is possible to trace ideas and compositions back to the paintings and Roman sarcophagus reliefs which Hill may have seen at the Louvre in Paris ' or reproductions from there. He has also found models in the illustrations by the French artist Gustav Doré in the family's large Bible, or Ernst Wallis's illustrated book on world history, to which he had access at home. Sometimes elements from newspaper illustrations and Hill's own schoolbooks also appear as part of his drawings.

The spiritual vitality and fantasy which Hill developed during his work on the large cartridge paper drawings led him to new forms of imagery. His sources of inspiration were brought together and intertwined to create images of a world never seen before.

In the highly strung rhythm of his lines in ink and India ink, we can detect Hill's impatience and longing for recognition ' to be great among artists. He had struggled to make a great breakthrough as a landscape painter in his years in France. Although today he is regarded by many people as the foremost of all Swedish 19th-century landscape depicters, he was never recognised during his lifetime. And the drawings, which collected in heaps in his two rooms in Lund, and which fascinate us today, were something that no one cared about until much later.

Carl Fredrik Hill was born in Lund in 1849. After graduating from secondary school in Lund he studied for two years at the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm before going to Paris in 1873 to seek success and fame. In 1878 he became ill and was cared for in hospitals in Paris, Roskilde and Lund until 1883, when he returned to his parents' home in Lund. There he developed his new world of imagery in thousands of drawings. Just over 2000 of these drawings have formed part of the collections at Malmö Art Gallery since 1931. The drawings ' and paintings on cardboard ' shown at Malmö Konsthall this summer come from these collections.

Malmö Konsthall
S:t Johannesgatan 7
Box 17 127
SE-200 10 Malmö

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