N°19-1974 Vague I

Actor portraying Anne-Eva Bergman:

"Life is the most important thing. Each color should be alive, have room to move. Whole – clear and clean, simple shades give a decorative and convincing effect, but they must have freedom of movement, and space to shine". 

 

Narrator: 

In 1973, Bergman and her husband, the German-French artist Hans Hartung, moved into their new home in Antibes, on the French Riviera. 

 

As newlyweds at the end of the 1920s, they had spent time in the south of France and fell in love with the landscape there. 

 

In 1961 they bought a property; an olive grove overlooking the Mediterranean. They designed the home themselves with some help from architects, and they each had their own studio. 

 

Although Bergman regularly spoke of her homesickness for Norway, she felt at home in Antibes, and even stated that "France became my homeland". 

 

Her motifs also became "French" - she painted the Mediterranean, the horizon, the waves, the light, and the light summer rain. She worked here until her death in 1987.  

Early on, the couple planned that the home in Antibes would become a foundation, where art, home and archive would be taken care of.  

In 1994, the Hartung-Bergman foundation was established. Most of the pictures in this exhibition are on loan from the foundation.