June 15 - October 14, 2007
Henie Onstad Art Centre




"I have to go home to Sogn to find inspiration for my pictures. There is a native "Sogning" in everything I do."

Knut Rumohr is best known for abstract paintings based on his impressions of nature. But his background as a graphic artist gives us the opportunity to see his artistry in a new light. From 1939-1991 Rumohr worked on different graphic printing techniques alongside his activities as a painter. In particular, he investigated the potential of the woodcut. Early on, while studying at the art academy, he experimented with different graphic printing techniques; the coloured woodcuts "Tramps", "Dance", "Figures" and "Three Men" are all from this period. These are the works of a fresh and probing young artist. With clearly expressionistic techniques, Rumohr portrays human figures in various contexts. The tramps are out sailing in a boat – they are archaically angular in form; both the boat and the figures are roughly angular and primitive in form. One of the faces has features while the others are empty ovals. Rumohr's depiction of the figures reveals his early interest for Norwegian folk art. He also used the traits of the wood itself as a formal compositional aspect in the above-mentioned works. The clearly visible lines emphasise the vertical lift that the observer can sense in the pictures. In this period of his career, Rumohr portrayed both positive and negative sides to everyday scenes, but also more dramatic events.

In his black and white woodcuts from the 1940s, Rumohr examines the contrasts that arise in the confrontation between the black and the white. The figures are isolated from their surroundings and some are divided into black and white horizontal sections. At the same time, he uses hatching techniques in different diagonal directions in order to bring life to the surface. The motifs are clearly split up into the foreground, the mid-section and the background. The figures are the main element and are clearly and distinctly depicted, while the mid-section and background are lighter and more abstract and simple in form. The rough features of the faces are created by means of hatched areas that give the figures a mask-like appearance. All these characteristics are repeated in works such as "At 8.45", "The Accident", "Four Horses", "The Madman" and "Lady with a Flower". Here, the motifs are reproduced with sharp precision and portray intense feelings and situations. Rumohr apparently once expressed in an interview his lack of interest for the literary painting, but there can be little doubt that his graphic works reveal a grasp of psychology.

WOODCUTS IN COLOUR AND BLACK/WHITE
The fact that Rumohr mastered the art of coloured woodcuts is clearly demonstrated by a number of nude motifs produced in the middle of the 1940s. Rumohr reveals sensitivity for the female figure and for the texture of skin. The women in these woodcuts are surprisingly natural and unabashed in their poses and movements. These nudes also show Rumohr's development as a graphic artist and his development towards an abstract idiom. In the colour woodcut "Nude with Cat" from 1944, the female figure is shown with light, arabesque-like shapes; indeed, she seems to materialise as a classic harem slave through the shimmering light effects created by the short, criss-crossing hatchings. In the work "Standing Nude" from 1957, the figure of the woman is created by means of prismatic elements in the primary colours blue and red. The woman is portrayed by very simple, abstract, geometric forms and communicates a primitive presence that reminds one of the famous sculpture "Venus from Willendorf" dating from around 25,000 BC.

Rumohr was one of the few Norwegian artists who employed woodcut techniques. He was particularly interested in woodcut and xylograph relief printing techniques ("xylon" is the Greek for "wood"). Furthermore, Rumohr revitalised the art of printing with a technique he developed himself. In 1952, he produced his first wood engraving with xylograph tools: a cam iron across the grain of the wood end. This gave the prints a new look and a flowing, soft character, as if the lines had been smudged out. Simultaneously, Rumohr began producing graphic works in a more abstract idiom. Another important, aesthetic aspect of the xylograph was the diversity of grey tones it offered. During his initial period as a graphic artist, Rumohr chose figurative motifs of his home surroundings, in which the life and natural environment around his native Frønningen are portrayed in portraits, everyday scenes and landscapes until he embarked on a more abstract period at the end of the 1940s. From the 1950s, the idiom of his graphic art harmonizes with the motifs in his paintings. From then on, Rumohr focused to a larger degree on an abstract idiom that concentrated on formal issues - but impressions of nature were always discernible under the surface.

This exhibition is the result of a collaboration between the Bergen Art Museum and the Henie Onstad Art Centre. It will consist of around 66 works and a selection of Rumohr's printing plates.

________________________
Henie Onstad Art Centre
Sonja Henies vei 31
NO-1311 Høvikodden
Norway
TEL : +47 67 80 48 80/81
post@hok.no
www.hok.no