LARS NØRGÅRD AUTOCLAVE

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1 PETER MICHAEL HORNUNG LARS NØRGÅRD AUTOCLAVE GALLERI PROFILEN

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3 LARS NØRGÅRD AUTOCLAVE

4 LARS NØR

5 AUTOCLAVE GÅRD

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7 PETER MICHAEL HORNUNG LARS NØRGÅRD Et billede, som er et millionsyn af fragmenter. En helhed som er stykket sammen af et splintret univers. Et møde mellem amputerede og krakelerede strukturer, som tiden har bremset midt i en rasende centrifugal bevægelse. Et sådant billede er som puslespil, der aldrig vil kunne samles korrekt, men hvor hver en eksisterende brik dog har fundet sin definitive plads. Med sine seneste værker har Lars Nørgård (født 1956) portrætteret et univers, der synes opbygget af lutter stumpede brudstykker og detaljer. Det er som om den gamle verden, med alle dens entydige stilistiske kendetegn, er blevet sprængt i stykker inde fra. Af resterne fra denne eksplosion har en kunstner nu opbygget et nyt verdensbillede. Det er sønderdelt, men hænger alligevel sammen i sin egen kalejdoskopiske logik. Kunsthistorikere har altid svært ved at klassificere kunstnere, der er brudt ud af stilhistoriens determinerede rækkefølge. De er vanskeligere at forklare end dem, der holder sig til den plads, som historien har tildelt dem. Derfor går de for at være uforudsigelige og besværlige. Men kun kunstens tryghedsnarkomaner oplever Lars Nørgård som uforudsigelig og besværlig. For alle andre er han en maler i stadig bevægelse, og netop en maler, for hvem bevægelsen er maleriets anledning. Derfor handler det om at fastholde bevægelsen som motivation, ikke kun i forhold til strukturen i det enkelte billede, men også i forhold til rytmen i selve den kunstneriske udfoldelse. Netop som man troede at kunne anbringe Lars Nørgård i én bås inden for det i forvejen uoverskuelige stilistiske spektrum, der eksisterer i dag, brød han ud og fortsatte et andet sted. Eller snarere et sted, hvor han havde mulighed for at begynde helt forfra, beriget med friske erfaringer og et nyt personligt mod. Det er blevet hans skæbne at stræbe efter det modsætningsfulde, det dialektiske. Derfor arbejder han sig frem og tilbage mellem udtryk, der både dementerer og supplerer hinanden. Hvis overhovedet noget så arkæologisk som begrebet stil skal bringes på tale, citerer Lars Nørgårds maleri fra både symbolismen, kubismen, konkretismen, surrealismen og den abstrakte ekspressionisme, som han i øvrigt altid har haft et godt øje til. Alligevel falder han i sidste ende ikke ned dér, hvor alle andre allerede har været, men ved siden af og ned i sin egen kategori, hvor han kan forene sit eget projekt med alverdens kunstneriske fristelser. Ligesom de amerikanske abstrakte ekspressionister lader han sig gerne lokke af palettens kromatiske fristelser. En udstrakt brug af klare, stærke farver gør efter hans mening et billede sværere at trænge ind i og igennem. De mange rum, konturer, strukturer og planer, der er hvirvlet sammen som i en stor tæt bevægelse, hindrer billedet i at blive let gennemskuet. Og det er, hvad det handler om: at male billeder, der er svære at sætte i bås og endnu sværere er at fælde en entydig dom over. Lars Nørgård er kun en anelse yngre end den generation, der i halvfjerdserne mente at kunne forudsige maleriets død. Men maleriet kom stærkt igen, takket være malere som netop ham.

8 I dag fremstår han som en af de mest frodige og umiddelbare malere på bjerget, hvor der for resten ikke er for mange, der stadig drømmer om at frembringe den STORE KUNST og det rigtige maleri. Han er ikke nogen koncept-kunstner, der har smuglet sin malerkasse med ind i den skabende proces. Han tænker sig ikke først til dét, han gerne vil male. I stedet maler han sig frem til det, han gerne vil se. Lars Nørgårds malerier kan opfattes som udladninger, der først underkastes en kreativ kontrol, efter at de er sluppet løs. Hvis der er en hensigt, er det at få alle de eruptive og impulsive kræfter i maleriet til at finde deres plads inden for rammerne af en samlet billedmæssig strategi. Selv i totaliteten bevares en følelse af, at maleriet er stykket sammen af brudte citater fra forskellige verdener, dog med den ene lille fællesnævner, at de alle er set gennem ét eneste blik. Nemlig Lars Nørgårds. Et blik som tydeligvis har en djævlesplint indbygget. Lars Nørgård er en kunstner, der benytter eller rettere har benyttet sig af figurer. Men hans figuration var allerede under afvikling, da han indledte den. Dette element af noget labilt eller forbigående er blevet hængende som et vilkår ved meget af det, som han har rørt ved sidenhen. Det fortsatte, da en ekspressionistisk hvirvelvind i slutningen af firserne blæste ind over den Nørgårdske figuration og splittede lemmerne i hans figurer ad. Umiddelbart så det ud, som om abstraktionen havde fået endelig overtaget. Men samtidig havde man den intuitive fornemmelse, at figurationen kun lurede på chancen for at levere et modangreb, så orden og genkendelighed kunne genoprettes. Selv når Lars Nørgård maler, søger han at opløse centrum i sine billeder, at fjerne begivenhedernes tyngdepunkt fra den midte, hvor man ellers ville forvente at finde det. Hvorfor denne mangel på et hvilepunkt? Hvorfor dette fravær af motiv? Måske fordi maleriet derved får noget uforudsigeligt over sig. Det virker, som om det er på vej væk fra sin egen form og dermed kommer så meget i bevægelse, mentalt set, som et i princippet ubevægeligt billede nu kan gøre det. Billedet skal være et energifelt med et manifest udseende, som kunstneren selv sammenligner med elektriske udladninger. Eller med en trykkoger. Hvor meget fremtid der end er i Lars Nørgårds værk, er der også en væsentlig fortid. Fra slutningen af 1970 erne til starten af 1980 erne kunne man møde på en spritny vilter ekspressionistisk genbrugskunst, der i forskellige lande gik under forskellige navne: New Image Painting hed den i USA, la transavanguardia i Italien, ny-ekspressionisme i Tyskland, og herhjemme kaldtes den for det unge vilde maleri. I dette nye maleri var det nærmest et krav at gøre alt det fladen, som man overhovedet kunne gøre. Hvis man ikke begrænse sig til at male realistisk, ekspressionistisk, non-figurativt eller konkret etc., kunne man bare gøre som Lars Nørgårds generation, der satte sig på firsernes avantgarde. De lod alle muligheder stå åbne, hele tiden, ikke fordi de havde svært ved at vælge, men fordi de ikke kunne se nogen idé i at vælge og vælge fra. Det hele var jo alligevel til stede, samtidigt. Derfor gjaldt det om at bruge så meget som muligt efter øjeblikkets impulsive forgodtbefindende. Forinden før den kollektive unge vildskab blev født havde Lars Nørgård været vidt omkring. Fra fødebyen Aalborg kom han til København, hvor han i tre år gik på Skolen for brugskunst (som i dag hedder Danmarks Designskole). Derfra rejste han til USA s vestkyst, til San Francisco, hvor han fulgte undervisningen på Academy of Art College. Det var ved den lejlighed, at han lærte New Image Painting at kende. Fra Californien gik rejsen så tilbage til København, hvor han kom med i Værkstedet Værst. Som medlem af dette eksperimenterende værksted kunne man virkelig prøve grænser af. Det gjorde Lars Nørgård opmuntret af den kunstneriske frigørelse, der samtidig fandt sted andre 6 7

9 steder. Stilbevidstheden forsvandt til fordel for en åben og meget afprøvende attitude til den moderne billedkunsts former. Heller ikke happeningformen forblev uprøvet, eller filmen som eksperimenterende medie. Siden har Lars Nørgård arbejdet sig frem og tilbage mellem udtryk, der på det nærmeste undsagde hinanden. Typisk for den generation, han hørte til, lavede han billeder, der tog gas på kunstens virkelighed og på alle dens modsætninger. På den ene side lod han sig lokke af figurationen, tilsat et stænk af absurd humor. Men samtidig var han også udfordret og fristet af abstraktionen, af det forestillingsløse, som i sidste ende altid forestiller noget alligevel. Hver gang han overgav sig den ene maleriske virkelighedsforståelse, blev han efter en vis periode trukket tilbage på plads af den anden. På den ene side var der figurationen, eller tegningen, fyldt med sære, karikerede og surrealistiske optrin. På den anden side var der maleriet, der oftest antog abstrakt karakter, fordi farven krævede en frigørelse, som tegningens linjer ikke kunne fastholde. Skulle nogen tvivle på, om Lars Nørgård nærmer eller fjerner sig fra abstraktionen, skal man bare bide sig fast i hans værker for at forstå, at tvivlen, det uafklarede, det utroværdige, ikke er en flugt fra den verden, man kender. Det er derimod en ny måde at se verden på. Det er enhver moderne kunstners drøm at kunne skabe noget, der vil stå som fortøjningspæle i tidsstrømmen. Enhver kunstner flytter sig, er nærmest nødt til det, og værket flytter sig med ham. Gjorde kunstneren ikke det, ville kunsten modsige de vilkår, som alt muligt andet i vor tid skabes under. Når en dynamisk og utålmodig verden kræver forandringer og omstruktureringer, og i et stadig mere accelererende tempo, er det ikke kunstnerens opgave at være bremseklods og bevæbne sig med en svunden tids kunstneriske praksis. Kunstneren skal ikke trodse tidsånden, uanset hvor flygtig den er. For så går kunstneren i stå og bliver et gidsel for sin egen rutine, en handyman, som Lars Nørgård kalder det. Naturligvis må kunstneren altid gøre hævd på sin egen dagsorden. Men selv den mest selvstændige dagsorden bør være koordineret med den virkelighed, der er et fælles vilkår for alle. Uanset hvor splittet denne virkelighed end måtte forekomme. Det er grunden til, at Lars Nørgård flytter sig. Ustandselig. Og at hans dagorden flytter med. Lars Nørgård, maler og grafiker. Født 25. oktober 1956 i Aalborg. Uddannet på Skolen for Brugskunst, København , samt på Academy of Art College, San Francisco, USA, Medlem af Værkstedet Værst, Repræsenteret på ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Århus, Esbjerg Kunstmuseum, Esbjerg, Helsingør Bymuseum, Helsingør, Horsens Kunstmuseum, Horsens, Kobberstiksamlingen, Statens Museum for Kunst, København, Kunstindustrimuseet, København, Kunstmuseet Trapholt, Kolding, Nordjyllands Kunstmuseum, Aalborg, Skive Kunstmuseum, Skive, Statens Museum for Kunst, København, Sønderjyllands Kunstmuseum, Tønder, Vejle Kunstmuseum, Vejle og Vestsjællands Kunstmuseum, Sorø.

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11 PETER MICHAEL HORNUNG LARS NØRGÅRD A picture that is like a plethora of fragments. A coherent whole pieced together from a splintered universe. A meeting between structures that are amputated and cracked, and which time has frozen in the middle of a furious centrifugal movement. Such a picture is a jigsaw puzzle that it will never be possible to assemble correctly, but in which each and every piece has, however, found its definitive place. With his latest works, Lars Nørgård (born 1956) has portrayed a universe that seems to be built up of nothing but stunted fragments and small details. It is as if the old world, with all its unambiguous stylistic reference points has been detonated from within. The artist has then used the shrapnel emanating from this explosion to create a new image of the world a disintegrated image that is nevertheless coherent within its own kaleidoscopic logic. Throughout the history of art, it has always been difficult to classify artists who have chosen to break away from the intensely deterministic sequences that distinguish the history of style. Such artists are more difficult to explain than those who meekly occupy the slot allocated to them by that history. They are therefore considered unpredictable and difficult. However, only the most dyed-in-the-wool comfort junkies of the art world view Lars Nørgård as unpredictable and difficult. To everyone else, he is an artist in constant development, and a painter for whom movement is the raison d être of the painting. For this reason, it is a matter of maintaining motion as motivation, not only in relation to the structure of the individual work, but also with regard to the rhythm of the artistic expression itself. Just when it appeared that it would be possible to pigeon-hole Lars Nørgård neatly within the chaotic contemporary stylistic spectrum of our current age, he broke away from prior expectations and chose to continue elsewhere. More specifically, in a place where he could return to the very beginning once again, enriched with fresh experiences and a renewed sense of personal courage. It has become his destiny to strive for the contradictory, the dialectic. This is why he works back and forth between idioms that both disavow and supplement each other. If it were at all possible to apply a concept as archaic as style, it could be said that Lars Nørgård s oeuvre draws on symbolism, cubism, concretism, surrealism and the abstract expressionism which he has always favoured. Nevertheless, he never ends up following the paths trodden by others before him; he stands apart, in his own category where he can conjoin his own project with all kinds of artistic temptations. Just like the American abstract expressionists, he has no problem with giving in to the chromatic temptations of the palette. As he sees it, extensive use of strong, clear colours makes a picture more difficult to access and penetrate. The numerous spaces, contours, structures and planes that are whirled together, as if in one giant, compact movement, serve to mask what is actually going on in the picture. And this is the whole point: to paint pictures that are hard to pin down, and on which it is even more difficult to pronounce an unambiguous judgement.

12 Lars Nørgård is only slightly younger than the members of the Danish generation who, in the 1970s, believed they could predict the demise of painting as a art form. But painting made a forceful comeback, thanks in no small part to artists like him. Today, he stands proud as one of the most exuberant and immediate artists on the mountain, which, incidentally, is very thinly populated with artists who still dream of creating MAJOR ART and authentic painting. He is by no means a concept artist who has secretly smuggled his box of paints into the creative process. He does not start by thinking about what he wants to paint rather, he paints his way to what he wants to see. Lars Nørgård s works can be considered outpourings that are not bound by any creative control until after they have been released. If there is an underlying intention, it is to convince all the eruptive and impulsive forces in the painting to find their own place within the framework of a coherent pictorial strategy. Even in its totality, each work retains a sense of having been pieced together from broken quotations from different worlds, although with the common denominator of having been viewed from a single glance that of Lars Nørgård. A glance that clearly features a dash of impishness. Lars Nørgård is an artist who makes use or, more accurately, has made use of figures. However, his figuration was under development from the moment he first applied it. This aspect of something unstable or transient has endured as a condition in much of what he has taken on since. It continued when an expressionist tornado blasted across Nørgård s figuration towards the end of the 1980s, disintegrating the limbs of his figures. At first glance, it appeared that abstraction had finally gained the upper hand although this was accompanied by an intuitive feeling that his figuration was simply dormant, lying in wait for the opportunity to launch a counter-attack to restore order and recognisability. Even when Lars Nørgård paints, he seeks to dissolve the core of his pictures, to remove the focal point of the events from the centre, where you would otherwise expect to find it. Why this lack of point of equilibrium? Why this absence of motif? Perhaps because it adds an air of unpredictability to the painting. It seems as if it is distancing itself from its own form and thus allowing what is in principle a stationary picture to achieve the pinnacle of movement from a mental perspective. The picture is to be an energy field with a manifest appearance that the artist himself compares to electrical discharges. Or an autoclave. However much future there may be in Lars Nørgård s works, there is also a significant past. From the end of the 1970s until the start of the 1980s, a brand new, rogue form of expressionist recycling art appeared. It was known by different names in different countries New Image Painting in the United States, la transavanguardia in Italy, New Expressionism in Germany and young wild painting in Denmark. In this new style of painting, it was considered almost a prerequisite to squeeze as much as possible onto the surface available. If you could not limit yourself to painting in the realistic, expressionist, non-figurative, concrete style or whatever else you chose you could simply choose to follow the lead of Lars Nørgård s generation the avant-garde of the 1980s. They left all the options open all the time; not because they found it difficult to make a choice, but because they could see no point in choosing or rejecting. Everything was present at the same time, after all, so the whole point was to make use of as much as possible on the basis of the impulsive discretion of the moment. Prior to this before the advent of the collective young wild movement Lars Nørgård had travelled far and wide. From his home town of Aalborg in Denmark, he moved to Copenhagen, 10 11

13 where he studied at the School of Applied Art (now called The Danish Design School) for three years. He then travelled to San Francisco on the west coast of the United States, where he attended the Academy of Art College in It was here that he encountered New Image Painting. From California, he returned to Copenhagen and joined the Værkstedet Værst group. The members of this experimental workshop had every opportunity to challenge artistic boundaries, and this is precisely what Lars Nørgård did, encouraged by the artistic liberation that was also taking place elsewhere. Style consciousness disappeared in favour of an open and challenging attitude to the forms of modern pictorial art. The idiom of happenings was tested as well, along with an examination of film as an experimental medium. Since then, Lars Nørgård has worked back and forth between idioms that were almost openly opposed to each other. Typically for a member of his generation, he created works that poked fun at the reality of art and all its inherent contradictions. On the one hand, he surrendered to the draw of figuration, to which he added a dash of absurd humour. At the same time, however, he was challenged and tempted by abstraction, by the non-representative that nevertheless resolves into a representation of something. Every time he devoted himself to one of these artistic understandings of reality, he found himself drawn back by the other after a while. On one side, there was figuration or drawing filled with strange, caricatured and surrealist episodes; on the other, there was painting, which often took on an abstract nature because the colour demanded a liberation that the lines of drawing could never hold down. Should anyone question whether Lars Nørgård is approaching or retreating from abstraction, it is sufficient to study his works to understand that doubt, the unexplained and the untrustworthy do not constitute an escape from the familiar world. In contrast, they are a new approach to viewing the world. Every modern artist dreams of creating something that will stand as a stable landmark in the current of time. Every artist moves is almost obliged to do so and the oeuvre moves with him or her. If the artist did not do so, the art would contradict the conditions under which everything else in our age is created. When a dynamic and impatient world demands changes and restructuring at a constantly increasing pace it is not the task of the artist to act as a brake pedal and cling steadfastly to the artistic practice of a bygone era. The artist is not to defy the spirit of the age, no matter how transient it may be, because this will cause the artist to stagnate and become a hostage to his/her own routine a handyman as Lars Nørgård puts it. Of course, the artist must always claim title to his/her own agenda. But even the most independent agenda must be co-ordinated with the reality that constitutes a set of conditions that are common to everyone. No matter how splintered this reality may appear. That is why Lars Nørgård moves. Incessantly. And why his agenda moves with him. Lars Nørgård, painter and graphic artist. Born on 25 October 1956 in Aalborg, Denmark. Trained at the School of Applied Art in Copenhagen , and at the Academy of Art College, San Francisco, United States, Member of Værkstedet Værst Represented at the ARoS Aarhus Museum of Art, Aarhus, Danish Museum of Art and Design, Copenhagen, Esbjerg Museum of Art, Esbjerg, Helsingør City Museum, Helsingør, Horsens Museum of Art, Horsens, Trapholt Museum of Art, Kolding, The North Jutland Museum of Art, Aalborg, The National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen, The Royal Collection of Graphic Art, Copenhagen, Skive Museum of Art, Skive, The Southern Jutland Museum of Art, Tønder, Vejle Museum of Art, Vejle and the West Zealand Museum of Art, Sorø.

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15 The Nervous Theater cm, acrylic and oil on canvas,

16 The Museum of Rhumba cm, acrylic and oil on canvas,

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18 Bouncers Ball cm, acrylic and oil on canvas,

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22 Shine on Brightly cm, acrylic and oil on canvas,

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24 Autoclave cm, acrylic and oil on canvas,

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28 Scout Sheep cm, oil on canvas,

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31 Traces and Treasures cm, oil on canvas,

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34 Reviewed Guestlist cm, oil on canvas,

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37 Test of Patience no cm, acrylic and oil on canvas,

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40 Plankton no cm, oil on canvas, 2010 Primitive Circles cm, acrylic and oil on canvas,

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42 Eight Arms and A New Haircut cm, acrylic and oil on canvas,

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46 Useful Trinkets cm, oil on canvas,

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48 Schytts cm, oil on canvas,

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52 Inside the Sparrow cm, oil on canvas,

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54 Scandinavians no cm, woodcut, 2010 Edition of 20 Schäfer Grafisk Værksted, Copenhagen Scandinavians no cm, woodcut, 2010 Edition of 20 Schäfer Grafisk Værksted, Copenhagen Scandinavians no cm, woodcut, 2010 Edition of 20 Schäfer Grafisk Værksted, Copenhagen 52 53

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56 Claes Lennarth Club cm, oil on canvas,

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60 The Selex Reunion cm, acrylic and oil on canvas,

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62 Whispering Foam cm, oil on canvas,

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64 Seamonster cm, oil on canvas,

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66 Woodcuts published by Galleri Profilen and Printed by Schäfer Grafisk Værksted, Copenhagen. Edition of 20. All drawings cm, pen on paper, ISBN Graphic design: Dan Eggers Printed by AKA-Print Photos: Claudi Thyrrestrup Photos of woodcuts: Anders Sune Berg Translation by David Lalley, Word Design Peter Michael Hornung is a writer, editor and art critic, contributing and responses on regular basis to the danish daily newspaper, Politiken.

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