Emil Nolde in a double pack: painting technique and Nordic art in focus

In October, Emil Nolde enthusiasts have a reason to rejoice. Both the Hamburger Kunsthalle and the Bucerius Kunstforum are each showing works by the artist from a different angle. The Kunsthalle Hamburg is basing the exhibition on an interdisciplinary research project on Emil Nolde that has been underway since 2018 in collaboration with the Doerne Institute of the Bavarian State Painting Collections in Munich and the Seebüll Ada and Emil Nolde Foundation. Under the title »I usually prime with chalk…« the house presents the results of the project and allows visitors to experience the painting-technical evaluations from the archive of Nolde's studio estate on the basis of eleven examined specimens; the focus is on the influence of the material and the working method on the pictorial effect - the Nolde presentation is integrated into the collection tour of Classical Modernism.

The Bucerius Forum, on the other hand, focuses on Nordic art from Nolde's early work. Here, too, the exhibition is based on a cooperation with the Nolde Foundation Seebüll. The presentation, entitled Nolde and the North, juxtaposes 80 works by the Expressionist from a period between 1900 and 1902 with works by Nordic artists of the same period, including Georg Nicolai Achen, Anna Ancher, Vilhelm Hammershøi and Viggo Johansen. The works tell of Nolde's time in Copenhagen, where he was drawn to after an impressive visit to the World's Fair in Paris in 1900; he was particularly taken with Scandinavian art there. In Denmark, he learned the typical painting of the country and preserved in his own way the world of the fantastic from the Nordic sagas as well as interior and landscape scenes.