Gunnar S. Gundersen
Encyclopedia
Gunnar S. Gundersen or Gunnar S. (as he came to be known) was a Norwegian
modernist
painter
.
, in the county of Sogn og Fjordane
, Norway. Gundersen was among the young artists who attended the National Academy of Fine Art in Oslo in the years after Norway was liberated from Nazi-Germany. He was a pupil of Aage Storstein
at the National Art Academy. This generation wanted to free themselves for the traditional Norwegian figurative painting and sought inspiration from leading artists in Europe at the time. Danish artist Richard Mortensen
, as well as Auguste Herbin
, Serge Poliakoff
and Victor Vasarely
. He belonged to a group of younger artists who were often referred to as Dødsgjengen together with fellow artists Ludvig Eikaas
and Odd Tandberg].
When he chose his modernistic form he was quickly acknowledged as one of the leaders in the abstract art
form in Norway. Gunnar S. is now regarded as one of the most significant painter of the Norwegian post-war period. Even though he never received the international acclaim he might have deserved, he became a unifying figure among his contemporaries in Norway. His work has been an inspiration for many artists in later generations.
This expression is at first glance a rendition of flat color fields. However, through extensive knowledge of theories of visual perception Gunnar S. is able to transform the color fields into images with a unique spatial quality, what Gunnar S. himself called "inconsistent space."
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
modernist
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
painter
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
.
Biography
Gunnar S. Gundersen was born in FørdeFørde
Førde is a municipality in the county of Sogn og Fjordane, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Sunnfjord. The administrative center is the town of Førde which in 2010 had 12,035 inhabitants. The historic village of Bruland is located just east of the town of Førde...
, in the county of Sogn og Fjordane
Sogn og Fjordane
is a county in Norway, bordering Møre og Romsdal, Oppland, Buskerud, and Hordaland. The county administration is in the town of Hermansverk in Leikanger municipality while the largest town is Førde....
, Norway. Gundersen was among the young artists who attended the National Academy of Fine Art in Oslo in the years after Norway was liberated from Nazi-Germany. He was a pupil of Aage Storstein
Aage Storstein
Aage Storstein was a Norwegian artist.Aage Storstein was born in Stavanger in the county of Rogaland, Norway. Aage Storstein studied in Paris at Academie Ranson, Académie de la Grande Chaumière, and Academie Colarossi during 1920 and 1921, and in 1926 under Henrik Sørensen and Per Krohg...
at the National Art Academy. This generation wanted to free themselves for the traditional Norwegian figurative painting and sought inspiration from leading artists in Europe at the time. Danish artist Richard Mortensen
Richard Mortensen
Richard Mortensen was a Danish painter.Mortensen studied between 1931 and 1932 at the Royal Danish Academy of Art in Copenhagen. Influenced by the works of Wassily Kandinsky, he developed an abstract style...
, as well as Auguste Herbin
Auguste Herbin
Auguste Herbin was a French painter.-Biography:Born in Quiévy, Nord, he studied drawing at the École des Beaux-Arts de Lille, from 1898 to 1901, when he settled in Paris....
, Serge Poliakoff
Serge Poliakoff
Serge Poliakoff was a Russian-born French modernist painter belonging to the 'New' Ecole de Paris .- Biography :...
and Victor Vasarely
Victor Vasarely
Victor Vasarely was a Hungarian French artist whose work is generally seen aligned with Op-art.His work entitled Zebra, created by Vasarely in the 1930s, is considered by some to be one of the earliest examples of Op-art...
. He belonged to a group of younger artists who were often referred to as Dødsgjengen together with fellow artists Ludvig Eikaas
Ludvig Eikaas
Ludvig Eikaas was a Norwegian painter, graphic artist and sculptor. Eikaas was among the first artists in Norway to work in a purely non-figurative idiom.-Biography:...
and Odd Tandberg].
When he chose his modernistic form he was quickly acknowledged as one of the leaders in the abstract art
Abstract art
Abstract art uses a visual language of form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. Western art had been, from the Renaissance up to the middle of the 19th century, underpinned by the logic of perspective and an...
form in Norway. Gunnar S. is now regarded as one of the most significant painter of the Norwegian post-war period. Even though he never received the international acclaim he might have deserved, he became a unifying figure among his contemporaries in Norway. His work has been an inspiration for many artists in later generations.
This expression is at first glance a rendition of flat color fields. However, through extensive knowledge of theories of visual perception Gunnar S. is able to transform the color fields into images with a unique spatial quality, what Gunnar S. himself called "inconsistent space."