Baroque Painting from Antwerp

So, Easter Sunday was a calm and relaxing day, and I went to the National Gallery in Oslo to check out an exhibition they are having there - which still will be up until 22nd of May:

Rubens – van Dyck – Jordaens. Baroque Painting from Antwerp

The museum is divided into six different sections with different themes - Religious and Allegory, Mythology, Portraits, Daily life in Antwerp, "City, land and ocean" and Still life

In addition to Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck and Jordaens, 15 other masters are presented, among them Jan Breughel the Elder, Jan Fijt, Theodor Rombouts and Frans Snijders.

Seeing that Rubens (1577-1640), van Dyck (1599-1641) and Jordaens (1593-1678) were the three masters that brought prestige to the Antwerp School of Painting, there is no doubt that this is an interesting exhibition.
Thus, two of the more particular paintings, were "A concert of Birds" by Frans Snyders (1579–1657 - Also know as Snijders) and "Bouquet of Flowers in a Sculptured Vase" by Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568-1625). They seemed kind of "out of place" compared to the other paintings that were exhibited, but nevertheless gave life the exhibition itself.

The portrait of Frans Snyders and his wife by van Dyck was stunning, and Venus Frigida by Jacob Jordaens was the one that reached out to me the most, taking interests in consideration.

I have to say, it was a rather interesting trip which gave me several flashbacks to the time I was in High School and had art history.
We had a teacher that had traveled a lot, and therefore had pictures of almost everything we ever talked about in class - except the things you cannot take pictures of anymore mind you. She showed them on slides in class, as she told stories regarding seeing the paintings and such live - being able to study the details and the craftsmanship.
It is not difficult to understand her fascination regarding traveling around seeing the paintings in real life after an exhibition like this.

And there is one - actually two - conclusions I can make from this trip:
I yet have to see a photography of one of these paintings that justifies them, and if you are in Oslo before May 22nd, you ought to pay the national museum a visit!

Links:
The National Museum homepage
Jacob Jordaens on Wikipedia
Rubens on WikiPedia
van Dyck on WikiPedia
Frans Snyders on WikiPedia
Jan Brueghel the Elder on WikiPedia

Fin Serck-Hanssen

Selected works by the Norwegian photographer Fin Serck-Hanssen (Born 1958) can currently be seen at the Henie Onstad Art Center at Høvikodden, Norway.
The exhibition is ongoing between 24th of March and 29th of May 2011, so if you are in Oslo between these dates, get on bus 151 from Oslo Bus terminal (which departures every 15 min during daytimes) headed for Rykkinn, and get off at Høvikodden, and check it out. The trip is only 25 min, so you'll be there in no time.

Fin Serck-Hanssen had his first solo exhibition in 1983, and is still going strong.
Already in the 70s, he was working as a photographer for the Norwegian music magazine Nye Trakter, and have been working with great names as Bruce Springsteen, The Cure, Depeche Mode, Divine, FGTH and Nina Hagen - as well as more obscure punk bands.
Through his career, he has also contributed in/published a total of 6 books, wherein "Homage to Nora" in cooperation with Yoko Ono based upon Henrik Ibsens novel is one of them.

Another book-project - "Normalizing Judgement" - interpreters the Norwegian prison culture through images/artistic illustration and place descriptions of 8 Norwegian prisons. The result is a book that questions the culture, and how this aligns with the Norwegians society, and its reputation as including, understanding and forgiving.
Sadly, I yet have to get a hold of the book, so I cannot give a personal impression of it, but it can be ordered from the publisher Teknisk Industri AS
There you'll even be able to buy some of his prints unframed for the price of NOK 4.500,- (€580/$840).

Fin Serck-Hanssen is a man with a lot of interesting photographies over the years, that is for sure. Check out his galleries on his homepage.

Bacon and Warhol

Francis Bacon (1909–1991) and Andy Warhol (1928–1987) in one exhibition?
yes, indeed it can happen.

The Norwegian museum Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art will make this happen with their exhibition "Surrounding Bacon and Warhole" which will go on 5th of May 2011 and last until 25th of September 2011.

Andy Warhol (Born Andrew Warhola August 6th in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) was one of the leading artists in the Pop Art-scene.
He's known as avant-garde filmmaker ,Record Producer, commercial designer, author, and not to forget painter.
Andy Warhol was credited as a producer on The Velvet Underground & Nico, which was a self titled LP that have come to be know as the banana album due to the design.

He joins the line of the renowned painters Jackson Pollock, Pablo Picasso, Vincent van Gogh, Pierre-August Renoir, Gustav Klimt and Willem de Kooning with achieving the benchmark "Selling a painting for $100.000.000", which he achieved when his canvas titled "Eight Elvises" from 1963 was sold. The transaction was reported in 2009, so sadly post mortem.
His merit list is way to long to be mentioned here, but as he was an awesome man, I suggest that you read more about him on WikiPedia as well as check out some pictures on Google Image Search


Francis Bacon was born on October 28th 1909 in Ireland.
His breakthrough came in 1944 with his triptych (A painting divided in three parts, hinged together and folded) Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion (Tate Collection homepage).
He was a figurative painter "known for his bold, austere, graphic and emotionally raw imagery."
Once again, check out his page on WikiPedia and Google Image Search

And check out the presentation on Astrup Fearnleys webpages, and do check out the exhibition between May 5th and September 25th!

Trolls & Legends Festival

To start this post, I should give a quick resumé of my intrest, and I will do so using simple words:
Music, Festivals, Traveling, Paganism, Folklore, Dragons (heck, I even have a dragon tattoo, and more planned), Mythology, RPG, Fantasy, Beer, Reading and Gaming.
So, that should more or less cover it, shouldn't it?

This Easter April 22nd-24th, Trolls & Legends Festival in Mons, Belgium will be arranged for the 4th time.
And the theme for the festival: Nothing less than dragons.
So basically 3 days of pagan and folk-inspired music, literature and more in Belgium - a country know for its good beers amongst other things - with Dragons as the theme.
I can only say one thing: Darn that I didn't find out about this before the holidays already were planed and payed for.

It is nevertheless amazing to check the site for the current and past line-ups, as there are a lot of bands focusing on Medieval, Pagan and Folk-inspired music.
One of them, is a German band named Faun. Check out their webpage. They even have this cute MP3-player at the bottom there.
I'll also embed a YouTube-clip from when they perform Egil Saga live, and one without a video with one of my favorite songs named Satyroso.

The ensemble was founded in 2002, and have since then released 6 CD's and 2 DVD's, sold more than 100.000 CD's worldwide and performed on more than 600 venues.
They are released on the labels Screaming Banshee/ALIVE (Germany) and "Noir Records" (USA).

Quoted from their official webpage:

FAUN combines medieval & ancient instruments with modern influences to create an enchanting and powerful atmosphere. The band's performance incorporates many different instruments, including the Celtic harp, nyckelharpa, various lutes, the bagpipes, large Japanese taiko drums, cister, the violin, flutes and even Arabic instruments like dombra, rebab, riq, oud, darabukka and bendir, as well as the melodic vocal section going from solo folk-like and often ambient melodies to chant-like and always enchanting vocal performances with the two female and frontman Oliver s.tyr vocalists combining something truelly magical.. Influences of Celtic folk and medieval music fusing with driving beats draws an ever fast growing crowd of followers.

Enjoy, and perhaps I'll see you at Trolls et Légendes 2012? =)

Klaus Nomi - Angel of Suburbia

Today is the premiere of a show named "Klaus Nomi - Angel of Suburbia" @ Dramatikkens Hus in Oslo, Norway.
Sadly - as todays show was sold out - I will not be able to see this show myself, but for those of you that are in Oslo the coming week, I suggest that you go see it.
The show is a tribute to Klaus Nomi written by Sven Henriksen, based upon the idea of Øystein Elle, and the concept is created by Øystein Helle and Karstein Solli.
All honor to them to bring fort such a great man - or a creative life force - that lived on this planet way too short. (More information regarding the show @ Dramatikkens Hus - Norwegian only)

Klaus Nomi (born Klaus Sperber, 24th of January 1944) was a great performer and musician that sadly died at the age of 39 due to AIDS in 1983, when HIV hit NY with full force.
As he was getting sicker and sicker, the doctors could not tell him what was wrong - have in mind that HIV and AIDS first was discovered back in 1981, and still was poorly understood at the time.

He was a countertenor know for his amazing scene performances, heavy make-up and special costumes as well as hairdo.
The debates have been hot under different clips on YouTube whether he was an alien sent to save earth o a divine entity of some sort. One thing is certain: Na matter who or what he was, he was an outstanding performer, and his time on earth was way too short. A gap is left that likely never will be filled.

Thanks to Øystein Elle, the show goes on, and his memory will arise once again, and I am sure a lot of people that grew up in the time Klaus Nomi started to get know, will have tears in their eyes and will look back to the time when this musical entity roamed the face of the earth.

My friend DJ Deadswan a.k.a. Reidar have written an article regarding this for the Norwegian LGBT magazine Blikk (Norwegian Only)

I'll embed a video where Klaus Nomi performs his version of the song "Cold Song" from Purcell's "King Arthur". This was one of the last performances he gave, and he was already at this stage dying of AIDS. If the audience knew, that I do not know. Amazing performance nevertheless!