Rickhard / Melgaard - Selected Works from the Christian Bjelland Collection

For the first time in the Oslo area a selection of works from Christian Bjelland’s private collection will be on public display in a new, major exhibition at Henie Onstad Kunstsenter (HOK).

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Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, 27 February – 10 May 2015

Press preview, 26 February, 10:00 am

Official opening, 26 February, 7:30 pm

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A traditional presentation of an art collection often functions as a representative reflection of its owner. This exhibition, however, sets a curatorial spotlight on painting’s position in contemporary art today by focusing on two prominent Norwegian painters, Bjarne Melgaard and Leonard Rickhard.

“Welcome to a display of contrasts”, says Tone Hansen, HOK’s director and the curator of this exhibition. “Rickhard / Melgaard provides unique insight into two very different yet equally powerful approaches to art. What Melgaard and Rickhard do have in common is that they both work figuratively, and they both work in relation to art history’s rich visual material”. Hansen reminds us that Melgaard is also generating interest at the moment in connection with the exhibition, Melgaard + Munch, now on view at the Munch Museum. She adds, “The Munch Museum’s show gives us a close dialogue between two artists, while the Rickhard / Melgaard exhibition here at HOK presents two artists in a distinct, separate way”.

The collector Christian Bjelland

Christian Bjelland is an important private collector in Norway today and possesses a collection devoted primarily to contemporary Norwegian painting. Acquired over the past 40 years, the collection currently consists of approximately 250 works by 20 artists, and its focus is on expressive, figurative painting. As a collector, Bjelland has closely followed certain artists’ careers over many years and thereby attained a solid understanding of their development and formal vocabulary.

At the expense of diversity he favors collecting in a concentrated and discerning way.

“It gives me tremendous pleasure to be able to share works by Leonard Rickhard and Bjarne Melgaard from my collection with the public at large. I hope the exhibition manages not only to shed light on two widely divergent approaches to painting, but also generates enthusiasm for their distinctive styles. And for painting itself, for its inexhaustible potential as a form of artistic expression,” says Christian Bjelland.

An odd couple

“A more unlikely pair than Melgaard and Rickhard would be hard to find in Norwegian contemporary art history,” says Tone Hansen, adding that both their lives and their art are extremely disparate. Via the contrasts between these two artists HOK aims to encourage debate about painting’s status in the art world today.

Leonard Rickhard has in over 30 years distinguished himself as one of Norway’s leading painters. Having grown up in postwar-era Norway serves as the raw material for his work. A saturated surface, harmonious color fields, and a systematic method of constructing a painted space via pastose layers of pigment, create a world unto itself, one replete with references to our recent past and to art history.

Bjarne Melgaard’s artistic endeavor encompasses everything from paintings to drawings, photographs, objects, sculptures, installations, and films. The thematic narratives one can trace in his exhibitions include references to gay sub-cultures, love and violence, to art history and to literature.

Annual presentations of private collections

HOK has previously shown a number of private collections, affording the public a glimpse into various collectors’ strategies. With this exhibition HOK now resumes these shows with the objective of stimulating greater interest in contemporary art and in collecting. Christian Bjelland’s collection is thus the first in a series of annual presentations of Norwegian and international collections.

“Some of the works on display were purchased as recently as this year. Bjelland’s is a dynamic collection, constantly evolving, which makes it very exciting to interpret”, Hansen says.

Critic and author Arve Rød has contributed an essay on the artists for the accompanying exhibition catalogue.

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Title:Rickhard / Melgaard. Selected Works from the Christian Bjelland Collection

Opening: 26 February 2015

Duration: 27 February – 10 May 2015

Curator:Tone Hansen

Sunday, 10 May, at 2:00 pm a concert will be held with pieces specially commissioned for the occasion by Lene Grenager for Leonard Rickhard and Jon Wesseltoft for Bjarne Melgaard.

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For more information and high-resolution photographs, contact:

Jørn Knutsen, Communications advisor, HOK, jk@hok.no – mobile: +47 99 53 91 04

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Leonard Rickhard (1945) was educated at Statens Håndverks- og Kunstindustriskole and Statens Kunstakademi. He lives and works in Arendal.

Bjarne Melgaard (1967) was educated at Statens kunstakademi in Oslo, Jan van Eyck-akademiet in Maastricht and Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. He lives and works in New York.