Art guide:
Aase Kvikne Bjordal - Kvikne's Hotel 1913
(1921 - 2009)
Bjordal was born and raised in Balestrand, and is the daughter of Sigurd and Marta Kvikne, who owned Kvikne's Hotel. She was educated at the State School of Arts and Crafts in Oslo, the Vestlandske kunstakademie in Bergen, and the Bergen School of Arts and Crafts.
Bjordal finds her motifs in the old rural environment. Techniques such as cold needle, aquatint, etching and serigraphy are well suited to these motifs. She has done many decorative assignments, and had many exhibitions.
96. Aase Kvikne Bjordal (1921 - 2009) - Fjordbotn
Bjordal was born and raised in Balestrand, and is the daughter of Sigurd and Marta Kvikne, who owned Kvikne's Hotel. She is educated at the State School of Crafts and Arts in Oslo, the Vestlandske kunstakade in Bergen and the Bergen kunstakadeskule. Bjordal finds her motifs in the old rural environment. Techniques such as cold needle, aquatint, etching and serigraphy are well suited to these motifs. She has done many decorative assignments, and has had many exhibitions.
101. Einar Enblom - Against the Vegan Set
(1900-1936)
Enblom was Swedish, and was born in Stockholm. Despite his Swedish origin, it is correct to call Enblom "Balholm painter". We know that Enblom stayed in Balestrand for long periods. He was, among other things, a good friend of Sigurd Kvikne, and was called Uncle Einar by the Kvikne family.
He was in Balestrand in the summer, and in Switzerland in the winter. Enblom died in Switzerland at only 36 years old.
Alfred Heaton Cooper - Village motif
(1863–1929)
Cooper was born in Svinton, Lancashire. He studied at the Westminster School of Art. Cooper first came to Norway in 1891, and we find his name in Kvikne's guest books on November 15th of that year. Cooper became a true Norwegian, and built "Cooperhuset" here in Balestrand. The house is in the dragon style, and can be found behind the expedition on the quay. Cooper married Mathilde Marie Valentinsen from Balestrand, and they had three children. His son William took up painting after his father, and was very fond of Balestrand. William had a son Julian, who is also a painter.
Einar Enblom - Samuelstova
(1900-1936)
Enblom was Swedish, and was born in Stockholm. Despite his Swedish origin, it is correct to call Enblom "Balholm painter". We know that Enblom stayed in Balestrand for long periods. He was, among other things, a good friend of Sigurd Kvikne, and was called Uncle Einar by the Kvikne family.
He was in Balestrand in the summer, and in Switzerland in the winter. Enblom died in Switzerland at only 36 years old.
Ben Blessum - From Twenty
(1877-1954)
Blessum was born in Marstein in Romsdal. He was a painter and tourist.
He lived most of his life in the United States, where he headed the Norwegian State Railways' travel office in New York from 1923 to 1936.
Lars Printz - Sigurd Kvikne DE
(1889 - 1968)
Printz was born in Nes in Romerike. He studied in Kristiania under, among others, Christian Krogh and Halfdan Strøm. He lived in Balestrand for quite a long time, and was well liked by the villagers. There are many pictures of Printz here in Balestrand.
Lars Printz - Marta Kvikne DE
(1889 - 1968)
Printz was born in Nes in Romerike. He studied in Kristiania under, among others, Christian Krogh and Halfdan Strøm. He lived in Balestrand for quite a long time, and was well liked by the villagers. There are many pictures of Printz here in Balestrand.
Johan Tenol-Tuxen(1887 - 1958) - Bari at play - winter
Johan Tenol-Tuxen was a painter from Vik in Sogn. He was mainly self-taught, but received some training from the painter Bernhard Hinna from Jæren.
Nikolai Astrup was aware of Tenol-Tuxen's talent and recommended that he receive a scholarship from the Ministry of Culture. Tenol-Tuxen is best known for his landscape motifs with motifs from various places in Sogn. He has a distinctive color scheme that matches well with the western nature.
Conrad Selmyhr - Fjord motif w/rowing boat
(1877 - 1944)
He painted pictures from all parts of the world, but is especially known in Norway for his Norland Paintings.
S. went to sea at a very young age and saved money to become an artist. He began his studies in Vienna at the age of 19 and later became one of Norway's most travelled painters. He painted subjects from all over the world, but is especially known in Scandinavia as the Nordland painter with the ability to reproduce the colours of sunsets and the northern lights and the magic of the Nordland nature. In Hamburg in 1904 he exhibited a larger picture, The cruiser Prins Heinrich on its way to Aalesund .
Adelsteen Normann - Landscape
(1848 - 1918)
Eilert Adelsteen Normann (1 May 1848–26 December 1918) was a Norwegian painter. He was educated in Düsseldorf, Germany, and settled there. During the summer he traveled around Northern Norway and made sketches. He specialized in romantic fjord landscapes, often with a small steamboat or sailboat on a mirror-like sea. Normann was the first from Northern Norway to establish himself as a painter.
Normann was the son of a farmer and merchant on Vågøya in Bodin. After working as a journeyman for merchant Koch in Bodø, he traveled to Bergen and later Copenhagen to learn the trade. During his studies in Copenhagen, his interest in art took over. From 1869 to 1873, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Düsseldorf, where he was greatly influenced by the tradition of his compatriot Hans Gude. He thus became a typical late Düsseldorfer. Normann also found a spouse and permanent address in the Rhine city, at a time when other Norwegian painters were seeking Paris.
With his background from Nordland, Normann specialized in Norwegian fjord landscapes. He found motifs especially in Lofoten and Northern Norway, as well as around the Sognefjord. On his study trips in Norway, he made sketches that he used to compose large-format landscape paintings. His fjord motifs are often characterized by steep mountains over sunny fjords and sea. Light played a major role in Normann's paintings; he was one of the first Norwegian painters to use the midnight sun as a motif. He is said to be the originator of the term "land of the midnight sun". His paintings became very popular with the German art public.
111. Jakob Weidemann(1923 -2001) - Komposisjon
Jakob Weidemann was a Norwegian artist. Weidemann is considered one of the most important artists within Norwegian modernism in the 1950s, and he was a pioneer of abstract painting in Norway in the decades after World War II. Weidemann's work "Storfuglen letter" (1959) has been named one of Morgenbladet's 12 most important works of art.
He grew up in Steinkjer and at the age of 11 he moved to Oslo to live with his mother, who was then married. He was educated at Bergen Kunsthåndverkskole (1939), Ole B. Eide's painting school (Bergen 1940-) and the Oslo Academy of Fine Arts (1941–). Jacob Weidemann's first exhibition – at Blomqvist, Oslo in 1946 – was an artistic breakthrough.
Characteristic are his abstract, expressionistic paintings with nature as a source of inspiration. After some experimentation with different styles in the 1940s and 1950s, Weidemann finally settled on what can be called an expressive, lyrical-abstract art with nature as a source of inspiration and starting point. Several of his later works are called "Impressions from Nature". Other well-known titles are "Interior", "The Road to Jerusalem", "The Great Bird Takes Off", "Fog in Gethsemane" and "Homage to El Greco".
He has carried out monumental works in Steinkjer Church (1965) and in Store Maihaugsal in Lillehammer (1967).
Weidemann was married to Anne Marie Frøisland, daughter of Frøis Frøisland. Their artist home Ringsveen near Lillehammer has been transferred to a foundation, the purpose of which is to make the property available as housing for younger artists.
