Anne-Karin Furunes
Anne-Karin Furunes (born 1961) is a Norwegian visual artist known for images in which perforated surfaces, light and the viewer's movement work together. Portraits and landscapes may initially resemble photographs or painted halftone images. On closer inspection, the holes themselves and the material become a crucial part of the image.
Architecture and visual art
Furunes holds an architecture diploma from 1989 and completed art studies at Statens Kunstakademi and Trondheim Academy of Fine Art in 1993. NTNU's presentation dates her professional artistic practice to 1994. This background is relevant to how the images relate to space and public architecture, but is not a technique description for an individual object.
From archival photograph to perforated surface
The Vigeland Museum describes Furunes selecting and cropping archival photographs before transforming their images into hand-perforated canvases. The holes are made with specialised tools. Lighting and movement in front of the works alter how the image is experienced. The source is photographic, while the finished work has a physically perforated surface.
In its 2010 exhibition Portraits of Unknowns, the University of Wyoming Art Museum linked a group of portraits to Swedish archival photographs from historical racial classification. This information concerns that presentation. It should not give every person depicted in Furunes's art a specific identity, diagnosis or life story. Connecting an unknown face to a particular person requires documentation.
An early museum work
The National Museum's Unknown German II is catalogued with the dates 1996 to 1998 in parentheses. Its material is coloured, perforated canvas, measuring 224 × 160 cm. The museum purchased it in 1998. The catalogue's cautious dating and terminology should be preserved; do not substitute a definite single year or an undocumented paint type.
A large landscape
Calving Glacier II, Kongsbreen, Svalbard Norway from 2022 shows that her subject matter also includes landscapes. The National Museum records painted and perforated canvas, with acrylic as a technique, measuring 241 × 445.6 × 5.3 cm. It was purchased in 2022. These physical details concern this particular work, not every glacier image in her practice.
Aluminium and public space
Christen Sveaas at Kistefos was unveiled in 2003. It consists of three panels of industrially coated, perforated aluminium, each 250 × 125 cm. The portrait is based on a photograph, and the holes make the panels partially transparent. This is a different material and form of presentation from a perforated canvas painting.
At Nationaltheatret station, two 250-metre image friezes form part of the train hall opened in 1999. KORO and the architects LPO specify 332 stainless steel panels, perforated into halftone imagery. Faces, bathers, waves and clouds are among the motifs. The work's location and architectural context must be considered part of its presentation.
Original works, prints and photographic reproductions
A printed photograph of a perforated work is a different kind of object from the perforated original. Examine whether the surface actually has holes, what support is used, how it is painted or coated, and how it should be mounted and lit. A halftone-like image or an artist's name is insufficient grounds for calling something a perforated original work.
Do not assume that a motif exists in a particular edition, or that numbering has a known meaning without edition information. Preserve documentation of title, year, dimensions, material, publisher or gallery and any mounting instructions. The source photograph's date, the work's production year and its acquisition year are three different matters.
Condition and provenance
Describe distorted holes, tears, dents, scratches, flaking paint and altered mounting where present. Preserve spacers, fittings and other documentation belonging to the work. Labels, invoices and older photographs can support ownership history. Biography, a related motif or signature similarity does not authenticate a particular object.
Read more about artist signatures, provenance and ownership history.
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Contact OBA about selling and assessment (Norwegian page).
Sources and further reading
- National Museum: Anne-Karin Furunes
- NTNU: education and artistic practice
- Vigeland Museum: archival images and perforation
- University of Wyoming Art Museum: portraits and archives
- National Museum: painting MS-04030-1998
- National Museum: painting NMK.2022.0011
- Kistefos: Christen Sveaas
- KORO: Nationaltheatret stasjon
- LPO: Nationaltheatret stasjon
