KjARTan Slettemark

I am working on some old pictures, from 1991. Showing the Scandinavian artist Kjartan Slettemark, giving lectures in his special way for students of the Trondheim Academy of Fine Art (KiT). That is, only a couple of them was scanned, so I have just made a photograph of the photograph above. Slettemark (1932-2008) was born in Norway but moved to Sweden. He was a controversial artist from the start. In 1965 he put a collage in front of the Parliament of Norway, titled “From a report from Vietnam: Children are splashed with napalm. Their skin is burnt into black wounds and they die.” It was vandalized. Slettemark used art as means to achieve freedom on both an individual and artistic level. Loved and hated, but five years after his death, Slettemark is mayby more exhibited than ever. Munch Museum in Oslo showed the exhibition from Munch to Slettemark this spring. The same collection is exhibited untill 19 January in Kode, the art museum of Bergen. And the National Museum in Oslo is showing more than 200 of his work, untill 23 February 2014. I hope to go there, but something is missing from these exhibitions: himself. There are a few more photos on this link.

 

vandalized