“Mur de glace en brume (no 12-1971)”

Details

The work is registered in the archive of the Fondation Hartung-Bergman, Antibes, and has been included in the forthcoming Catalogue Raisonné of works by Anna-Eva Bergman.

Exhibition:

Anna-Eva Bergman, Centro Annunciata, Milan 1975, with b/w ill.p.17;

Anna-Eva Bergman, Galerie Daniel Gervis, Paris 1986;

Hommage à Anna-Eva Bergman, Galerie Dube-Heynig, Munich 1988, with colour illustration on the invitation card.

Provenance:

Galleria Annunciata, Milan, on the reverse with the label;

Galerie Dube-Heynig, Munich, on the reverse with the label;

Private collection, Austria, acquired from the aforementioned in 1988.

Description

– Impressive example of Bergman’s compositional ingenuity and unique use of materials

– Anna-Eva Bergman, who was long overshadowed by her husband, the painter Hans Hartung, is one of the most important representatives of Scandinavian and international post-war art with her abstract work, which celebrates the beauty of nature and the landscape of the far north

– At the beginning of 2023, the Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris, dedicated an extensive retrospective to the artist

In the early 1950s, Norwegian artist Anna-Eva Bergman began to move her art ever closer to abstraction. Her source of inspiration is the vast landscape of the north: stones, mountains, water and light. Although her paintings appear non-representational, they always retain a reference to reality. The painting technique is inextricably linked to her artistic subject matter: silver, gold or copper leaves are fixed to the canvas with a kind of tempera and varnish. The shimmering earth materials catch the light and thus become a visual reference, spreading a mystical glow.

During her lifetime, Bergman’s artistic work was mostly overshadowed by her fellow artist and husband, the German painter Hans Hartung. She married him a second time in 1957 and lived with him in Paris. There, the couple socialised in the Parisian art scene around Sonia Delaunay-Terk, Alexander Calder, Pierre Soulages and Virgin Helena Vieira da Silva.

The increasing recognition that Bergman’s work has received can be seen in several exhibitions in Europe and the United States. In 1959, Bergman participated in documenta II in Kassel. In the 1970s, Bergman and Hartung bought a property in Antibes, France, and set up their studio there. Today, works by the artist couple are exhibited there in the Fondation Hartung-Bergman.