MOMENTS – DIALOGS OVER TIME
A retrospective exhibition with visual artist Bjarke Regn Svendsen at Skive Museum
From Saturday, June 8 at 15:00
Ever since “Red Moped” from 1976 became part of the collection at Skive Museum, there has been talk of creating a solo exhibition with Bjarke Regn Svendsen. Now it’s happening! On June 8, 2024, a large retrospective exhibition opens, where you can see the latest paintings from Regn Svendsen’s hand in close connection with his life journey from the earliest drawings until he finds his style as a neo-realist.
Bjarke Regn Svendsen has painted the world around him with his sober brush since his pure youth. His sharp eye is fascinated by the banal in everyday life. All the obvious and humble elements we all blindly pass by in everyday life: such as randomly parked bicycles, closing mechanisms on a container, etc. – all the overlooked things Regn Svendsen gives stubborn attention and surprisingly large space on the canvas. This is not a glorification of the desolate, random and indifferent – but, on the contrary, a sharp observation that even a drainpipe can contribute great aesthetic values and experiences.
Neo-Realism – a rediscovered style that tricks your brain
Neo-Realism has been missing from the art scene for decades. The style has been “shamed” as a repetition of 19th-century realism, and thus shamed for not daring to break with traditional painting. At Skive Museum, we look forward to a welcome return to the style that can make the viewer enter into a dialog with their own reality right here and now. Because apparently a neo-realist painting denies being a painting. What is painted looks so much like reality that the viewer forgets that it is just a picture – an illusion.
Bjarke Regn Svendsen’s painting style is quiet and careful and often so meticulous that the brushstrokes disappear completely. The brush is still his preferred tool; he does not use spray guns. The viewer forgets for a moment that they are looking at a painting. The boundary between painting and reality dissolves. In an effortless way, he makes us all look at the overlooked in everyday life with a consciously intended anonymity as a painting artist.
Photo competition – play Bjarke Regn Svendsen
The neo-realists’ sketchpad is the photograph, and the lens is the filter between reality and the painted. That’s why Skive Museum has created a photo competition that encourages both adults and children to experience Skive city through the lens of Bjarke Regn Svendsen. Learn from Bjarke Regn Svendsen’s paintings and go out into Skive City to find and capture newly discovered aspects of Skive in photographs. The winners will have their photograph painted by the artist himself, and there is a competition for both children and adults. Details about the photo competition can be found on Museum Salling’s website.
The exhibition Moments – dialogs over time
‘Moments – dialogs over time’ shows works from Bjarke Regns Svendsen’s own private works, JANUS – Vestjyllands Kunstmuseum, Skive Museum’s own collection and some from private collections.
The museum’s marble hall is mainly the setting for Bjarke Regn Svendsen’s early works and his youthful struggle to find his own expression as a neo-realist.
The museum’s carpet hall shows the artist’s latest works, where Regn Svendsen’s family albums are the main source of inspiration. The black and white amateur photographs and old slides are seen through the artist’s interpretive eye, cropping and adding color.
The artist reflects on his own life, everyday life, the ordinary and manages to capture the ephemeral moment in his paintings, and he encourages the viewer to do the same.
Titles, stories and what happens
In Bjarke Regn Svendsen’s painterly universe, the title of the painting often refers specifically to what is seen in the painting. The viewer therefore has to create their own stories for the paintings. Why is that bicycle against the wall? The work opens up to the viewer’s own interpretation. In the exhibition, we encourage museum visitors to play along and come up with their own titles and stories behind the paintings. The museum organizes ongoing activities for children and adults that are linked to the exhibition.
Art historian Lene Burkard talks about realism in painting, we create the framework for a drawing evening with “Puch Maxi-croquis” and on September 13 there is a pop-up day with Kunstcert – keep an eye out for events on the museum website.
The exhibition opens at Skive Museum on Saturday, June 8, 2024 at 15:00 – everyone is welcome.
After that, the exhibition can be seen at Skive Museum during the museum’s opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday 12.00 -16.00.
Information about the photo competition can be found here: PHOTO COMPETITION
