Just after I said that my trip to Iceland did not provide any artistic revelations, along comes an announcement that disagrees! This morning, I received a press release from The Armory Show saying that the “third edition of its invitation-only component, Armory Focus,” will shine a light on art being produced in the Nordic Countries, with galleries from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland — and Iceland.
Armory Focus, which takes place during The Armory Show, held annually in March in New York, is supposed to recognize “an under-recognized yet thriving arts community.” Katelijne De Backer, Executive Director of The Armory Show, noted, “The extensive and overwhelming network of artists, curators, collectors, museums, and galleries in these countries attests to the Nordic region’s international importance.”
OK, I’lll wait and see. Twenty dealers, whose names have not yet been disclosed, will be asked to participate by guest curator Jacob Fabricius, director of the Malmö Konsthall.
In its two earlier incarnations, Armory Focus spotlighted Latin America and Berlin.
In the fall, long before the Armory Show, Scandinavian art of another era will be highlighted in New York. In what promises to be an interesting show, Scandinavia House will open Luminous Modernism: Scandinavian Art Comes to America, 1912. It will showcase approximately 50 works by leading late 19th- and early 20th-century Nordic artists from more than 20 public and private collections in Europe and America — including paintings by Munch and Hammershoi.
Here’s the description from the press release:
Luminous Modernism revisits the landmark [American-Scandinavian Foundation]-sponsored exhibition of 1912–a ground-breaking display of contemporary Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish painting that gave many in this country, including emerging modern artists, their first introduction to Scandinavian art.
While Luminous Modernism features 20 of the same artists and 8 of the same works presented in the 1912 exhibition, it has been expanded in scope to encompass all five Nordic countries, including Finland and Iceland, illustrating the richness of artistic expression throughout the region during this period. Ranging from the visionary landscapes of Munch, Harald Sohlberg, and Akseli Gallen-Kallela, to the intimate domestic interiors of Hammershøi and Harriet Backer, to depictions of rural life by Carl Larsson and Lauritz Andersen Ring, the exhibition reveals the varied and original ways Scandinavian artists responded to modernist innovations at home and abroad.
Note that date, before the landmark Armory Show of 1913.
Photo Credit: Flower Meadow in the North (bottom), 1905, Harold Sohlberg, Courtesy of Scandinavia House