Jakob WEIDEMANN
1923–2001, Norway
Jakob Weidemann is regarded as one of Norway’s most important artists of the post-war modernistic tradition. He was one of several young artists of this period who broke with the traditional, figurative style of painting that up to then had completely dominated our national pictorial art. The group was inspired by Continental modernism and for many years, Weidemann experimented unrestrainedly with its artistic effects. Abstract French art was of especially great influence for his mature style, but he has himself said that during these first years, he stole like a magpie from anyone and anything he felt could contribute to a liberation of his artistic expression. Weidemann, in other words, varied his style of painting and artistic idiom many times in what seemed an apparently restless quest. He shifted effortlessly between powerful figurative paintings and purely abstract compositions, and it is not difficult to find obvious models for his work of this period. Among Norwegians these would be Kaj Fjell and Arne Ekeland, the artists’ group COBRA and, especially, Pablo Picasso.
Weidemann regnes som en foregangsperson for det abstrakte maleri i Norge i tiårene etter andre verdenskrig, og han var en av de viktigste kunstnerne innen norsk modernisme på 1950-tallet. Han gikk bl.a. i lære hos den svenske kunstneren Sven Erixson, som med sin anti-akademiske form, spontane malerglede og utpregede fargesans, fikk stor betydning for Weidemann, som hadde mye av de samme egenskaper.
\"I 1968 bosatte Weidemann seg på Lillehammer. På gjentatte mønstringer i inn- og utland og ved hans monumentale dekorasjoner som de til Maihaugen (1967) og Alfaset kapell (1971), har formspråket vekslet fra nærmest eteriske gjengivelser i 1970 til kraftig fargeprakende bilder over temaet \"Hestehoven kommer\", laget til Festspillutstillingen i Bergen 1973, og så igjen til mer vare, sfæriske fremstillinger mot midten og slutten av 70-årene.\" Hellandsjø side 438
Source: www.blomqvist.no