Nr. 2-1953, Stele med måne

  • Artist: Anna-Eva Bergman
  • Creation date: 1953
  • Object type: Painting

Not on display

About

Anna-Eva Bergman began her artist training at the Norwegian National Academy of Art and Craft in Oslo in 1926. She was taught by among others Axel Revold at the Academy of Fine Art in Oslo and André Lhote in Paris. Bergman can be seen as one of the Norwegian modernists who evolved abstract painting from the mid- 1940s and throughout the 1950s. Bergman lived most of her adult life in France, but retained strong bonds to Norway. Early on in her career she worked figuratively and drew illustrations. After making the switch to painting, she developed images inspired by surrealism and avant-garde painting where colours, lines, and geometric and organic shapes form rhythmic, abstract compositions. Many of her paintings from the early 1950s resonate with artists such as Wassily Kandinsky, Joan Miró, and Gustave Singier.

Bergman gradually developed an abstract style characterized by its distinctive shapes and fields of colour and extensive use of silver and gold to evoke light. She based her works on Norwegian nature and created stylized images of mountains, oceans, horizons, and other natural features.

In Stele with Moon we see a dark and a light shape against a light background. The shapes do not relate to a specific landscape but are rather pure elements that almost hover in the pictorial plane. The title describes the shapes, something that steers the picture towards symbolism and adds a temporal and spiritual dimension. By reducing the silver-coated moon and black stele to geometric shapes, Bergman imbues the work with an archetypical quality.

Text: Randi Godø

From "Highlights. Art from 1945 to the Present", Nasjonalmuseet 2016, ISBN 978-82-8154-116-0

Artist/producer

Anna-Eva Bergman

Visual artist, Graphic artist, Painter

Born 29.05.1909 in Stockholm, Sverige, death 24.07.1987 in Grasse

Work info

Creation date:
1953
Other titles:
Nr. 2-1953, Stele med måne (NOR)
No 2-1953, Stele avec lune (FRE)
Object type:
Materials and techniques:
Tempera og Bladmetall på Lerret
Material:
Dimensions:
  • Height: 146 cm
  • Width: 97 cm
Keywords:
Classification:
Inventory no.:
MS-04053-1998
Cataloguing level:
Single object
Acquisition:
Kjøpt 1998
Owner and collection:
Nasjonalmuseet for kunst, arkitektur og design, The Fine Art Collections
Photo:
Børre Høstland
Copyright:
© Bergman, Anna-Eva/BONO