Aksel Waldemar Johannessen

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Self-portrait, oil on canvas, around 1910

Aksel Waldemar Johannessen (* 1880 in Oslo ; † 25. October 1922 ibid) was a Norwegian graphic designer , sculptor and painter of Expressionism .

Life

Tramp with a dog , around 1910

Aksel Waldemar Johannessen grew up in the poor district of Hammersborg, a district of Oslo. He later attended the state arts and crafts school, where he studied sculpture under Lars Utne . In 1907 Johannessen married his former fellow student Anna Nilsen, and their relationship resulted in two daughters. Around 1910 the couple moved to Gjøvik , where Johannessen worked as a wood carver and furniture designer in a furniture company . At the beginning of the First World War , he returned to Oslo with his family and began painting. Johannessen unfolded in his own complex world of images and thoughts, which found expression in a realistic and socially critical art. In 1921 doctors diagnosed his wife with cancer and Aksel Waldemar turned more and more to alcohol. Aksel Waldemar Johannessen died of a pneumonia, but his health was weakened .

Johannessen's pictures were only exhibited for the first time after his death. The important Norwegian critic Jappe Nilssen , discoverer and best friend of Edvard Munch , wrote what is perhaps the best criticism of his career: “... I hardly remember seeing anything similar in Nordic painting.” Munch himself said “... there won't be any today painted better pictures ”. However, after that Johannessen fell into oblivion and was only rediscovered in 1990 by the art collector Haakon Mehren .

The play “The Forgotten Painter” by Alexander Kratzer (premiered in 2011 with Harald Bodingbauer as Aksel Waldemar Johannessen and Thomas Schächl as Haakon Mehren, directed by Andreas Baumgartner) brings the story of the rediscovery to life.

literature

  • Johannessen, Aksel Waldemar . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General Lexicon of Fine Artists of the XX. Century. tape 2 : E-J . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1955, p. 553 .
  • Erich Steingräber: Aksel Waldemar Johannessen , Electa Verlag 1994, ISBN 8-8435-4777-1

Web links

Commons : Aksel Waldemar Johannessen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Johannessen, Aksel Waldemar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Norwegian painter and printmaker
DATE OF BIRTH 1880
PLACE OF BIRTH Oslo
DATE OF DEATH October 25, 1922
Place of death Oslo