Anna-Maria von Bonsdorff – författare

An exploration of the development of the art scene, its socio-political context, and the role of the fine arts in nineteenth-century Nordic society  This book captures for the first time the full story of Nordic art and its corresponding way of life from 1820 to 1920. Amply illustrated, this publication discusses a wide range of artists, regardless of gender, and how they related to the European art scene. The authors convey the essence of Nordic art by providing insight into the history of public and private collections, art education, artists’ communities, the role of children’s books illustrations, and the identity of emerging national states in Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. A selection of themes are reviewed, including living with nature, everyday life, artists’ portraits, family life, cityscapes, and Nordic mythology.  The publication is edited by two experienced museum professionals from Finland and Sweden, who have published widely on the subject and curated numerous international exhibitions. Contributors include leading experts from all Nordic countries, as well as the UK.  Distributed for Mercatorfonds  Exhibition Schedule:TBD

Gothic Modern illuminates the pivotal discovery of medieval Gothic art for Edvard Munch, Käthe Kollwitz and their artist contemporaries. It explores their deep attraction to the Gothic art of Europe’s north and German lands via paintings, prints and in other artistic media to imagine a new ‘Gothic modernity’, unlocking a different energy of modern art and creative experiment beyond nation-centric stories.The book sheds light on the profound importance of medieval Gothic art for Edvard Munch, Käthe Kollwitz and their contemporaries. It explores their re-imagining of Gothic art between the 1870s and 1920s to create new visions of the artist, ‘belonging’, modern society, sexuality, spirituality and identity. In these ways, a distant Gothic age is recreated as tantalisingly close to ‘modernity’, in short, to making modern art. Dark or radiant, enchanted or uncanny, these sites of ‘Gothic modernity’ inspired Munch’s and Kollwitz’s generation with urgent imaginaries for creating worlds. Artists include: Hans Baldung Grien, Ernst Barlach, Max Beckmann, Dirk Bouts, Arnold Böcklin, Gustav Carus, Lovis Corinth, Lucas Cranach The Elder, Otto Dix, Albrecht Dürer, James Ensor, Lyonel Feininger, Akseli Gallen-kallela, Matthias Grünewald, Ernst Heckel, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Max Klinger, Käthe Kollwitz, Lowis Korinth, George Minne, Paula Modersohn-becker, Edvard Munch, Emil Nolde, Helene Schjerfbeck, Hugo Simberg, Carl Spitzweg, Marianne Stokes, Henrik Sorensen, Hans Thoma, Gustave Van De Woestyne, Vincent Van Gogh, Emanuel Vigeland, Gustav Vigeland, et al.

This extensive publication, complete with hundreds of illustrations by such renowned artists as Carl Larsson, Edvard Munch, Vilhelm Hammershøi, Helene Schjerfbeck, Pekka Halonen, Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Gerhard Munthe, Pietro Krohn, and Frida Hansen, among others, offers an unprecedented study of Japanese influence on the visual arts in the Nordic countries. This unlikely diffusion of Japanese culture, known collectively as Japonisme, became increasingly apparent in England, France, and elsewhere in Europe during the 19th century, although nowhere was the influence seemingly as pervasive as it was throughout the Nordic countries. The book reveals how the widespread interest in Japanese aesthetics helped to establish notions of a fundamental unity between the arts and transformed the region’s visual vocabulary. The adoption of Japanese motifs and styles in Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark gave a necessary cohesion to their existing artistic language, creating a vital balance within and among all of the decorative arts.Distributed for MercatorfondsExhibition Schedule:Ateneum Art Museum, Finnish National Gallery, Helsinki(02/18/16–05/15/16)National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo(06/16/16–10/16/16)Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen(01/19/17–04/23/17)