Gunnar S. Gundersen (25 December 1921 – 16 January 1983) or Gunnar S. (as he came to be known) was a Norwegian modernist

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

Biography

Gunnar S. Gundersen was born in Førde, in the county of Sogn og Fjordane, Norway. Gundersen was among the young artists who attended the

Oslo National Academy of the Arts The Oslo National Academy of the Arts ( no, Kunsthøgskolen i Oslo, ''KHiO'') is a university college in Oslo, Norway, that provides education in visual arts, design and performing arts. It is one of two public institutes of higher learning in ...

in the years after Norway was liberated from Nazi-Germany. He was a pupil of

Aage Storstein Aage Storstein (26 July 1900 – 7 May 1983) was a Norwegian artist. Aage Storstein was born in Stavanger in the county of Rogaland, Norway. Aage Storstein studied in Paris at Academie Ranson, Académie de la Grande Chaumière, and Academie Col ...

at the National Art Academy. He made his debut as early as 1947 at the Autumn Exhibition in Oslo. His generation wanted to free themselves for the traditional Norwegian figurative painting and sought inspiration from leading artists in Europe at the time. Danish artist Richard Mortensen, as well as Auguste Herbin,

Serge Poliakoff Serge Poliakoff (January 8, 1900 – October 12, 1969) was a Russian-born French modernist painter belonging to the 'New' Ecole de Paris (Tachisme). Biography Serge Poliakoff was born in Moscow in 1900, the thirteenth of fourteen children. Hi ...

and

Victor Vasarely Victor Vasarely (; born Győző Vásárhelyi, ; 9 April 1906 – 15 March 1997) was a Hungarian-French artist, who is widely accepted as a "grandfather" and leader of the Op art movement. His work entitled ''Zebra'', created in 1937, is consi ...

. He belonged to a group of younger artists who were often referred to as ''Dødsgjengen'' together with fellow artists Ludvig Eikaas and

Odd Tandberg Odd Tandberg (16 April 1924 – 14 February 2017), was a Norwegian painter and printmaker. Biography Odd Tandberg was born in Oslo. He studied at Bjarne Engebrets' painting school in 1941, and then at the Norwegian National Academy of Craft an ...

. When he chose his modernist form he was quickly acknowledged as one of the leaders in the

abstract art Abstract art uses visual language of shape, form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. Western art had been, from the Renaissance up to the middle of the 19th ...

form in Norway. Gunnar S. is now regarded as one of the most significant painters of the Norwegian post-war period. Even though he never received the international acclaim he might have deserved, he became a unifying figure among his contemporaries in Norway. His work has been an inspiration for many artists in later generations. Gunnar S. Gundersen
''Norsk Biografisk Leksikon'' This expression is at first glance a rendition of flat color fields. However, through extensive knowledge of theories of visual perception Gunnar S. is able to transform the color fields into images with a unique spatial quality, what Gunnar S. himself called "inconsistent space."

References

1921 births 1983 deaths 20th-century Norwegian painters Norwegian male painters People from Førde 20th-century Norwegian male artists {{Norway-painter-stub