Nordic Painting: The Rise of Modernity

Nordic Painting: The Rise of Modernity brings together the most significant styles and works of modern Nordic art while creating an interesting cultural-historical overview of the whole of Scandinavia. Complemented with rich illustrations, the thematic chapters each provide one perspective on Nordic art from the 19th century to the present day. The book was authored by art historians Katharina Alsen and Annika Landmann, who both specialize in modern Nordic art, and was published by the art publishing house Prestel.

Delightful landscapes, idyllic genre scenes, light-flooded interiors, and atmospheric portraits: this richly illustrated book introduces the most important stylistic directions, artists, and works of Nordic painting. Concentrating on the period of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, it centers on Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Iceland, but also considers the equally interesting Nordic regions of the Faroes, Greenland, and the German-Danish borderland.

The authors Katharina Alsen and Annika Landmann investigate important pictorial subjects such as landscapes, interiors, urban motifs, and abstraction on the basis of significant works by artists like Edvard Munch, Vilhelm Hammershøi, Helene Schjerfbeck, Jóhannes S. Kjarval, and Sigrid Hjertén.

Drawing from the most recent research, this extensive monograph addresses itself to various issues, including the interaction between Nordic and Central European artists and the development of modernism in Nordic art. At the same time, it opens up new perspectives on the present: a consideration of the works of contemporary artists such as Ragnar Kjartansson and Olafur Eliasson, which make both thematic and formal reference to the previous century, elucidates the enduring significance of Nordic art even today.