Christen Sveaas Art Foundation : This is the Night Mail Selected by Ida Ekbland

Beautiful exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery of a selection of work from the Christen Sveaas Art Foundation.

Ida Ekbland, a Norwegian contemporary artist, had selected these works from the collection of Christen Sveaas who has collected painting by Norwegian and international artists as well as antique silver and glass. Ekbland look at first line of a poem by W.H. Auden as their starting point and explores moonlit interiors and landscapes and how they “frame dreams, dramas and transgressions”.  I’m not sure how all the works fit this concept but there were some beautiful pieces and it was an interesting way of picking works from a collection to display.

There were works be wellknown artists such as Giorgio de Chirico, Howard Hodgkin, Edvard Munch and Louise Bourgeois alongside artists I hadn’t come across before. I loved Per Krohg’s picture of a girl reading from 1916 and in the same vein a Freud like portrait of a girl by Christian Schad Tyskland from 1935. I was also drawn to Christian Krohg’s pictures from the late 19th century which seem to tell a story.

My favourite was this large picture “The Window Into My Past” by Ilya Kabakov which plays to my career as a librarian and love of history as well as my interest in realistic painting. It was a nice touch to include a Theaster Gate’s cart with ceramics on it as there was also an exhibition of his work downstairs.

This is the first of a series of shows focusing on this collection and I’ll definitely be back to see more.

Closed 2 January 2022

 

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