Carl Nesjar
Carl Nesjar (1920 to 2015) was a Norwegian painter, printmaker, photographer and sculptor from Larvik. His original name was Carl Carlsen. Natural forms and processes became important in his abstract pictures, concrete works and fountains. His collaboration with Pablo Picasso is significant, but forms only one part of an extensive body of work of his own.
International background and abstraction from nature
Nesjar grew up in Larvik and Brooklyn and trained at institutions including Pratt Institute and the art academy in Oslo. In Paris, he studied printmaking with Stanley William Hayter at Atelier 17 and with Jean Pons. Influences from abroad were connected with his experience of the coastal landscape.
The National Museum highlights a lyrical response to nature in his abstract painting and his interest in photography. Coast, water and ice are recurring starting points. Abstraction here does not necessarily mean that the connection with nature has disappeared; it may lie in rhythms, planes and material effects rather than a recognisable view.
Jarstein and Kystbilde
Jarstein is dated 1956 to 1957 and painted in oil on canvas, 98 × 123.5 cm. The National Museum's painting was transferred from Riksgalleriet in 1988. The transfer year is not the year the painting was made. The precise museum title should be retained when referring to this work.
Kystbilde is catalogued with the period 1976 to 1980 in parentheses. It is acrylic and sand on canvas, 81.5 × 121 cm, purchased by the museum in 1981. Sand is part of the stated technique. A rough surface on another picture does not, however, prove that it contains the same mixture of materials.
Naturbetong and integrated art
Erling Viksjø developed naturbetong together with engineer Sverre Jystad. Nesjar used sandblasting to create motifs in the material. Different treatments could expose the stone aggregate and vary the character of the surface. The technique closely connected visual art with the building, instead of treating the wall as a neutral display surface.
For Fiskerne and Måken in the Y-block, the sketches came from Pablo Picasso, while Carl Nesjar carried out the sandblasting. Attribution must preserve both roles. It is imprecise both to describe the preparatory motifs as Nesjar's own compositions and to erase his contribution as the artist executing them in concrete.
The Y-block was demolished in 2020, after Nesjar's death. Relocation and subsequent conservation or restoration must therefore be distinguished from the artist's original work. A new location does not automatically give a work a new creation date. Document the work's history and any interventions separately.
Prints and photographs as works in their own right
The National Museum's Uten tittel from 1957, inventory number NMK.2020.0036, is a lithograph on wove paper, 370 × 500 mm. It is a specific example of his printmaking, not documentation of the technique in every work on paper bearing Nesjar's name. The title is also too general to identify a work without further information.
Y-blokka med Picassos «Fiskerne» from 1969 is catalogued as a photograph: gelatin silver on photographic paper, 30 × 24.3 cm. Here, the photograph is the collection object. A photograph of an architectural artwork must not be described as the concrete work itself, and a later printed reproduction must be distinguished from a documented photographic print.
Water, steel and winter ice
The fountain at Auditorium Maximum in Ås was completed in 1971. NMBU describes a steel construction with flowing water in summer and ice formation in winter. Season and temperature contribute to its expression. It should not be described as a concrete work simply because Nesjar is known for naturbetong.
Identification and provenance
Distinguish paintings, original prints, photographs, reproductions, models and executed sculptures. Record technique, support, dimensions, signature, numbering and inscriptions on the specific object. In collaborations, both authorship of the motif and its actual execution must be documented. An artist's biography does not establish who made an undocumented object.
Describe condition in relation to the material: moisture damage and fading on paper, deformation and retouching in paintings, and corrosion, cracks or repairs in three-dimensional works. Preserve labels and earlier ownership information. Similarity of signature or material and a familiar Picasso motif are not in themselves evidence of authenticity or collaboration.
Read more about lithography, modernism, artist signatures, provenance and ownership history.
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