Kompositionsskitse til landskabsbillede? 1932 - 1935

Curator: Let's take a look at "Kompositionsskitse til landskabsbillede?" which translates to "Compositional Sketch for a Landscape Painting?" made with pencil on paper by Niels Larsen Stevns between 1932 and 1935, now housed at the SMK. It’s an intimate glimpse into an artist's process, wouldn’t you agree? Editor: Intimate is a perfect word! I get this real sense of... hush, almost. Like stumbling upon someone’s secret thoughts laid bare. It's loose and undefined, but pregnant with possibility. What sort of stories do you see brewing within the socio-political context that produced this piece? Curator: Well, thinking about Stevns and his moment, we have a fascinating nexus. The interwar years were a hotbed of Modernism. And given Stevns’ commitment to social engagement in his art, I wonder how this study connects to prevailing conversations around land use, rural identity, or even the looming shadows of impending conflict. Editor: Ah, the looming shadows definitely creep in for me, it almost feels prophetic, wouldn’t you say? I’m particularly struck by the tension between the chaotic scribbles and what feels like a rigid, underlying grid. Maybe the “secret thoughts laid bare” have a structure. Is it landscape, or an intellectual exercise on how to structure landscape? What I think that adds to me is that the artist here isn't recording, but instead interrogating! Curator: Exactly! And interrogation implies a questioning of power, a challenging of established norms, perhaps even a subtle critique of idyllic landscape tropes, wouldn’t you agree? Editor: Perhaps, yet for all its modernist sensibilities, there's still something deeply classic about this. That light and shadow he captures with just a few strokes, the composition. I keep feeling this overwhelming feeling that he felt in the studio in these days and weeks and months of iterating, almost, this feeling! Curator: Indeed! This sketch invites us to consider the dialogue between art as a tool for reflecting reality and a space for actively shaping and questioning it. A question remains of the degree to which Stevns managed to integrate Modernist aesthetics to progressive politics to form art, at a scale he preferred, by retaining certain elements or discarding them to forge ahead a path for himself. Editor: It is very personal. This peek behind the curtain somehow pulls me closer to Stevns, not just his art, but him! Thank you, Niels! Curator: And for me, this piece prompts further thinking on the intertwined histories of art and political discourse, specifically on land ownership, which I think has particular weight in the case of Scandinavian nations.