OSLO.- The “Impressions: Five Centuries of Woodcuts” exhibition opened on 6 November at the National Gallery showcasing a wide array of Norwegian and international woodcuts.

The selection is wide-ranging, spanning from Albrecht Dürer to a newly produced installation by Thomas Kilpper. The exhibition features woodcuts by artists such as Hanne Borchgrevink, Tore Hansen, the Kierulf sisters, and Mamma Andersson. It also displays exquisitely executed Japanese colour woodcuts from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Though the formats and styles vary greatly, the works are linked by their use of graphic techniques.

Democratic mode of spreading pictures
The age-old technique of woodcuts has been the subject of renewed interest in recent years, and the democratic idea of widely reproducing and distributing images remains relevant. Most of the works featured in the exhibition, nearly a hundred in total, hail from the museum’s abundant collection of graphic works. In addition, the National Gallery has taken some important works on loan from private owners.

Site-specific work from 2015
The German artist Thomas Kilpper works with large-scale woodcuts from a socially critical perspective, and the exhibition dedicates an entire room to his work. He uses the floor there to create woodcuts and thereafter mount the prints as a three-dimensional installation in the room.

The woodcut as a process
The exhibition emphasizes the process of woodcuts. A group of students from the Oslo National Academy of the Arts will work on a woodcut project as an ongoing, collective process. During certain periods the students will be present in one of the rooms to show the public how they work with the medium. In the studio it will also be possible for visitors to try out the technique for themselves.

The exhibition curators are Møyfrid Tveit, Andrea Kroksnes, and Bodil Sørensen. The education curators are Frithjof Bringager and Anna Carin Hedberg. The project manager is Elsebet Kjerschow.