The Lofoten Painters
Permanent Exhibition
Gallery Lofoten houses the biggest collection of North Norwegian paintings from around the turn of the last century, a period by many referred to as the Golden Age of North Norwegian painting.
On the ground floor of the gallery there is an ample collection of paintings by widely recognized artists such as Otto Sinding, Gunnar Berg, Even Ulving, Adelsteen Normann, Einar Berger, Ole Juul, Thorolf Holmboe and several others.
What makes Gallery Lofoten’s collection so important in a regional and national context, is the fact that it includes a number of the paintings that were responsible for opening the eyes of Norwegians all over the country to the magnificent Lofoten countryside. Because, as I have stressed above, we see things through the images that surround us.
In the 1700s, for instance, waterfalls were only of interest to those who could make use of them, in the running of a mill, for instance, or similar such things. But when artists began painting waterfalls in the late 1700s and early 1800s, things changed.
A painted waterfall cannot be used for anything other than to look at and admire. This led to people gradually considering waterfalls as phenomena with their own intrinsic value, without any thought of their potential usage. In short, waterfalls thus became an aesthetic phenomenon, and that is what has been the reasoning behind the various campaigns to save waterfalls that local and national authorities have wanted to develop for industrial purposes.
In this respect, art has far greater significance than one might imagine, and this also applies to paintings of Lofoten. The tourist industry which today is almost as lucrative for Lofoten as the fisheries, is primarily a result of the fact that the entire region has become aesthetically attractive due to the many paintings that have promoted its magnificent scenery – from Otto Sinding to Einar Berger. But there are also more recent examples, too, like the Swedish watercolour painter, Lars Lerin (1954 -) who, by way of his paintings of Lofoten, where he lived for no less than 12 years, has given us a completely different impression and a different understanding of this landscape. .
Otto Sinding
Eilert Adelsteen Normann
Ole Juul
Gunnar Berg
Thorolf Holmboe
Even Ulving
Einar Berger
Lars Lerin
H.M. Queen Sonja
Exhibitions/Sections
Lars Lerin
has lived in Lofoten for many years and is considered one of the most outstanding watercolour painters in the world. Read more...
Queen Sonja
H.M. Queen Sonja’s life-long interest in art has resulted in her studying the history of art, gathering a comprehensive art collection and producing works of art of her own. Read more...
Ørnulf Opdahl
Works as a painter and graphic artist. Nature and the landscape are of pivotal importance to Opdahl’s work. Read more...
Painters of Lofoten
The gallery contains an ample collection of paintings by widely acknowledged artists like Otto Sinding, Gunnar Berg, Even Ulving, Adelsteen Normann, Einar Berger, Ole Juul, Thorolf Holmboe and several others. Read more...
Events
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