Rethinking Cubism and Concrete Art in the North

Rethinking Cubism and Concrete Art in the North
A research project 2025–2029

About the Network 

Rethinking Cubism and Concrete Art in the North is an interdisciplinary research network of art historians and conservators dedicated to the study of Nordic Cubism and Concrete Art. The main goal of the project is to revitalize and re-examine central parts of Nordic and North European art history in the 20th century.

The network’s scientific committee will issue a call for papers in late 2026. We aim to gather together art historians, scientists and conservators for a three-day international research conference in Oslo in 2027. A selection of contributors will be asked to develop full papers for a post-print due in 2028. An editorial group will ensure the publication of a peer-reviewed anthology that will be published in 2029. 

In the final phase of the project, the network will focus on disseminating the new research, making Nordic and Northern European artists’ contributions to Cubism and Concrete art visible beyond the academic field.

Background

A century after the first Cubist works appeared, Cubism has become a central fixture in art history, supported by a vast historiography. While the major protagonists of Cubism — such as Picasso, Braque, Gris, and Léger — have generated an extensive body of scholarship, studies focusing on artists operating at the so-called margins of the movement remain scarce.

Although Cubism is widely regarded as one of the most groundbreaking art movements of the twentieth century, both Cubism and its successor, Concrete Art, have had a limited presence in art-historical research in the Nordic countries. Artists returning from Paris and Berlin were often met with harsh criticism and ridicule. As participants in a genuinely international movement, they did not align with the nationally oriented art-historical narratives prevalent in the interwar period.

It was only in the 1980s and 1990s that Cubism and Concrete Art began to emerge as subjects of art-historical research in the Nordic countries. This scholarship resulted in several exhibitions — among them Léger & Norden, which toured Stockholm, Copenhagen, Helsinki, and Oslo/Høvikodden — as well as some articles and books. Since then, scholarly interest has been sporadic, and a comprehensive reassessment remains overdue. At an international level, the contributions of Nordic artists are largely unknown. In simplified terms, one might argue that these practices have fallen into a gap: too “un-national” to be included in national narratives, yet too peripheral to be recognized within the broader narrative of Cubism and Concrete Art.

Beyond the Nordic context, there have been significant developments in the scholarly approach to Cubism. Strictly formalist analyses have increasingly been supplemented by semiotic and contextual methodologies. If Cubism is understood not merely as an art-historical moment but also as a cultural response to transformations in the twentieth century, then local social and political conditions in the Nordic region must be taken into account.

Furthermore, there have been few technical art history studies of Cubism and Concrete Art. The commercial paint market underwent major changes in the early and mid- 20th century making the period important to document and assess. One of the understudied topics is the history of local paint manufacturers in the Nordic countries. Today’s advances in analytical methods offer new possibilities for gaining knowledge that can lead to more precise dating of artworks, but equally to improved methods for their preservation. From the early 1980’s, there was growing awareness for the ‘special needs’ of Cubist paintings whose delicate surface effects were destroyed by inappropriate lining and varnishing treatments, as John Richardson pointed out in his polemic essay, ‘Crimes against the Cubists’ (1983). New insights generated by the current project will form an important stimulus for the further development of tailored methods for the conservation of Nordic Cubist and Concrete artworks that respect the artists’ intentions. These examples make clear how technical art history allied to conservation is an indispensable part of the interdisciplinary scope of this project, and it is our aim that more knowledge on the material practices of Cubist and Concrete artists will emerge through the course of this project.