Rolf Nesch
Rolf Nesch (1893 to 1975), born Emil Rudolf Nesch in Ober-Esslingen, Germany, was a German-born Norwegian visual artist. He moved to Norway in 1933 after the Nazi takeover and became a Norwegian citizen in 1946. Prints, material pictures, drawings and sculpture held central places in his practice.
From Dresden and Hamburg to Norway
Nesch trained in Stuttgart and Dresden. World War I interrupted his studies and brought British captivity. In Hamburg, where he settled in 1929, he worked in an expressive idiom. Karl Muck og hans orkester (1931) comprises 24 etchings depicting the conductor and orchestral instrument groups.
The metal print as a physical image
While working on Hamburgs broer in 1932, Nesch developed the metal print. Worked metal pieces, mesh and wire could be attached to a base plate. Printing transferred both colour and variations in height to the paper. The embossed relief consequently forms part of the expression, beyond a technical trace that can be disregarded.
Differences between impressions are another distinctive feature. Sidsel Helliesen describes how, in the bathing prints of 1939 and 1940, Nesch could place separately inked elements loosely on the base plate. Colour and position could change between impressions. Differences between related sheets therefore do not by themselves establish that one is a reproduction.
Printing plates, editions and material pictures
MoMA catalogues Teater i Alta as a metal print dated “(1947-48)”, edition 15, printed by the artist. It also owns nine zinc plates for the subject, dated “(1946-48)” and donated by Nesch. Plates and paper impressions are different objects. This work's edition cannot be applied to his whole production.
The National Museum documents St. Sebastian (1941) as a three-part colour metal print. He also treated the subject as a material picture; the two media must remain distinct. In a material picture, materials form the completed work itself, whereas a printing plate produces an impression.
Nesch completed the large material picture Sildefiske in Oslo's Indekshuset in 1965. The title also exists in printmaking: Ål kulturhus records the municipality's ownership of a version of Sildefiske (1938). A shared title cannot establish an object's type or date.
Life in Ål and assessing individual works
Nesch married the actress Ragnhild Hald in 1950. The following year they bought the farm renamed Ragnhildrud in Ål, which became his home and workplace. The Nesch Museum at Ål kulturhus opened in 1993 and presents several aspects of his production, including drawings, sculptures and material pictures.
When assessing prints, compare the entire sheet, relief, inking, dimensions and inscriptions with documentation for that particular subject. Consider colour variation alongside paper, printing and provenance. Flattened relief, folds, tears and later alterations are relevant condition details. Signature similarity alone establishes neither authorship nor edition.
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
- Store norske leksikon: Rolf Nesch
- Norsk kunstnerleksikon: Rolf Nesch
- Norsk biografisk leksikon: Rolf Nesch
- Sidsel Helliesen: The printmaker, Rolf Nesch archive
- MoMA: Theater in Alta, metal print
- MoMA: Metal Plates for Theater in Alta
- National Museum: St. Sebastian
- Ål kulturhus: About Rolf Nesch
- Ål kulturhus: Nesch Museum
