Travels After Lockdown


On a recent visit to Bergen I visited 3 of the main art galleries that had just reopened for the summer – Kode 2, 3 and 4. The exhibition in Kode 2 was on Picasso called Utstilling: Pablo Picasso. Suite 347.  It contained 347 drawings and lithographs, nearly all nudes, painted in his later life aged 75+.  I felt it was rather a manic repetition on the same theme (!), but there were a few exceptions. I particularly liked these two for their very fine artwork
 

In the other galleries Kode 3 and 4 are permanent exhibitions of 18th, 19th and 20th century art, featuring some well known Norwegian artists, including Edvard Munch and Nicolai Astrup. It was good to discover the pioneering female artist Harriet Bakker (Chez Moi, 1887), Ludvig Karsten (portrait of a lady, 1915) and Hans Gude (Kystbile)

Kystbile
Portrait of a Lady
Chez Moi

Next to a building site there was some interesting street art.  This painting of the elephant and rhinoceros being led towards a precariously fragile bridge made me think of impending extinctions due to human behaviour, but in fact it was a deep, psychoanalytical piece that I won’t even attempt to describe!  It just shows how imagination can create a meaning that is not always the intention of the artist, but it seemed to me to be equally relevant.