Kaspar Thormod – författare

A visual voyage through the enigmatic ocean, where science meets art and where myth meets realityWe know more about the surface of Mars than we do about our planet’s oceans. And yet the ocean remains an alluring prospect to humanity: as an artistic icon, an object of scientific inquiry or even a financial resource. Encompassing art, film, literature, archeology and natural history, Ocean is a journey of discovery above and below the surface. Offering a cross section of art and cultural history, the exhibition and catalog are arranged into three themes: the ocean between art and science; the mythological ocean; and the Anthropocene ocean. From the woodblock prints of Utagawa Kuniyoshi to Jean Painlevé’s photographs of aquatic life and Susan Hiller’s mapping of sea coasts, Ocean offers a mosaic view of this infinite yet imperiled source of life.Artists include: John Akomfrah, Anna Atkins, Jeanette Ehlers, Caspar David Friedrich, Susan Hiller, Pierre Huyghe, Utagawa Kuniyoshi, Jean Painlevé, Howardena Pindell, August Strindberg, Wolfgang Tillmans, Francesca Woodman.

Influenced by Byzantine art, Fauvism and German Expressionism, Jawlensky explored color, religious iconography and portraiture in his masterful serial paintingsRussian German painter Alexej Jawlensky (1864–1941) found his own artistic voice late in life. He was part of the revitalization of painting in the early 20th century, developing his Expressionist style through exchanges with the Fauves in Paris and his peers in Germany, including friends in and around Der Blaue Reiter. Until arthritis ended his ability to paint, Jawlensky explored color, religious iconography and portraiture in his masterful serial paintings. HIs last series of works, Meditations, comprises more than 1,000 paintings: modest in format, yet sensational. These paintings, which he described as "prayers in color," became an artistic redemption for Jawlensky, who throughout his life sought to connect his spiritual reflections with his painting. Featuring a clothbound spine, this small, slender and appealing volume features essays on Jawlensky's unique artistic projects, as well as an encyclopedia of his life and work.

Using the head as a site of investigation, Basquiat's frenetic drawings of faces are at once immediate and contemplativeBetween 1981 and 1983, Jean-Michel Basquiat made between 50 and 100 drawings of heads. Working with oil stick on paper, he created a series far removed from his public paintings and collages filled with words and symbols—a more concentrated, private study whose pieces are rarely exhibited and seldom offered for sale. Stripped of external references, they read as intimate meditations on identity, perception and the fragile balance between presence and disappearance.Bringing this exceptional group together for the first time in decades in an oversize folio, Headstrong sheds new light on a lesser-known aspect of Basquiat's practice. Essays by Pulitzer Prize–winning author Hilton Als and artists including George Condo and Julie Mehretu explore the drawings' formal invention and psychological intensity, showing how Basquiat transformed the head into a vessel for everything he was thinking and feeling—a space where imagination, history and lived experience converge.Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960–88) is one of the most successful Black visual artists in history, despite his brief career. He emerged on the New York City arts scene in the late 1970s and quickly skyrocketed to international fame, becoming one of the most important artists of his generation. Basquiat's work and legacy continue to influence popular culture, especially art, music and fashion.