Elin Behrens, Lucas Rahn, Viktor Rosdahl
01 Mar - 21 Apr 2013
ELIN BEHRENS, LUCAS RAHN, VIKTOR ROSDAHL
Det enda som håller
1 March - 21 April 2013
Det enda som håller is an exhibition in which we encounter painting through three artists, all with their individual approaches. I have chosen three artists who work in a figurative tradition. Not because the exhibition is meant to explore the possibilities of figurative painting, but because I didn’t want too many questions at the same time.
However, it is important to bear in mind that the figurative ambitions of these artists are not necessarily synonymous with an aspiration for realism in a traditional sense. As Ulf Linde writes in his essay Spejare (1960): “According to realism, a painting achieves its worth if it manages to fulfil the demands for ‘truth’. As a consequence of this argument one could not both appreciate a canvas by Monet and a cubist painting by Picasso – because the truth of one excludes that of the other.” So, this is not an exhibition of three artists who are looking for the only possible way of depicting something. As far as they want to present a truth, it lies in their desire to examine what one is able to say and in their desire to say something.
The intention of the exhibition Det enda som håller is to provide an opportunity for three unique encounters. Elin Behrens, Lucas Rahn and Viktor Rosdahl approach painting in widely different ways. Of course, they have things in common, but where two overlap the third is somewhere else. We may draw up diagrams to illustrate their interrelationships but it is difficult to find something consistently common between them, apart from the fact that they explicitly identify themselves as painters. Seen in this light, Det enda som håller is not an exhibition that aims to present some sublime truth about the state of painting in the year 2013, but an exhibition that attempts to humbly show three possible ways. The artists are presented in their own right and the encounter is rather to be found in the constructed relationship of being present at a given place at a given time.
Mikael Nanfeldt, Director
Det enda som håller
1 March - 21 April 2013
Det enda som håller is an exhibition in which we encounter painting through three artists, all with their individual approaches. I have chosen three artists who work in a figurative tradition. Not because the exhibition is meant to explore the possibilities of figurative painting, but because I didn’t want too many questions at the same time.
However, it is important to bear in mind that the figurative ambitions of these artists are not necessarily synonymous with an aspiration for realism in a traditional sense. As Ulf Linde writes in his essay Spejare (1960): “According to realism, a painting achieves its worth if it manages to fulfil the demands for ‘truth’. As a consequence of this argument one could not both appreciate a canvas by Monet and a cubist painting by Picasso – because the truth of one excludes that of the other.” So, this is not an exhibition of three artists who are looking for the only possible way of depicting something. As far as they want to present a truth, it lies in their desire to examine what one is able to say and in their desire to say something.
The intention of the exhibition Det enda som håller is to provide an opportunity for three unique encounters. Elin Behrens, Lucas Rahn and Viktor Rosdahl approach painting in widely different ways. Of course, they have things in common, but where two overlap the third is somewhere else. We may draw up diagrams to illustrate their interrelationships but it is difficult to find something consistently common between them, apart from the fact that they explicitly identify themselves as painters. Seen in this light, Det enda som håller is not an exhibition that aims to present some sublime truth about the state of painting in the year 2013, but an exhibition that attempts to humbly show three possible ways. The artists are presented in their own right and the encounter is rather to be found in the constructed relationship of being present at a given place at a given time.
Mikael Nanfeldt, Director