Ludvig Eikaas (20 December 1920 – 5 September 2010) was a
Norwegian
Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to:
*Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe
*Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway
*Demographics of Norway
*The Norwegian language, including the ...
painter, graphic artist and sculptor. Eikaas was among the first artists in Norway to work in a purely non-figurative idiom.
Biography
Ludvig Eikaas was born in the small hamlet of Eikaas in
Jølster
Jølster is a former municipality in Sogn og Fjordane county, Norway. It was located in the traditional district of Sunnfjord. The administrative centre was the village of Skei. Other villages in the municipality included Helgheim, Ålhus, Vass ...
municipality in
Sogn og Fjordane
Sogn og Fjordane (; English: "Sogn and Fjordane") was, up to 1 January 2020, a county in western Norway, when it was merged to become part of Vestland county. Bordering previous counties Møre og Romsdal, Oppland, Buskerud, and Hordaland, the cou ...
, Norway. He studied at the National College of Art and Design (1942–46), then at the National Art Academy and at the Art Academy in Copenhagen (1948).
Throughout his life as an artist, Eikaas showed great latitude in his choice of techniques and motifs. Few Norwegian artists in the postwar period showed so much imagination and curiosity. Eikaas' imagination was frequently paired with an irrepressible sense of humor. Eikaas debuted at the National Exhibition Fall 1946 and distinguished himself quickly as one of postwar most original and important Norwegian artists. Along with such
Gunnar S. Gundersen
Gunnar S. Gundersen (25 December 1921 – 16 January 1983) or Gunnar S. (as he came to be known) was a Norway, Norwegian modernism, modernist Painting, painter.
Biography
Gunnar S. Gundersen was born in Førde, in the county of Sogn og Fjorda ...
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 ...
, he was part of the so-called ''Dødsgjengen'', a group of intrepid and gifted young artists who were in the forefront of non-figurative art in Norway.
Eikaas was professor at the
Norwegian National Academy of Fine Arts
The Norwegian National Academy of Arts ( no, Statens kunstakademi) is a Norwegian Academy offering studies in the area of Fine Art. The Academy currently offers 3-year bachelor and 2-year MA programmes. The "Norwegian National Academy of the Arts" ...
from 1970, and principal in the period 1981–83. Working within
non-figurative art, he is considered one of the most important Norwegian artists in the post-
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
era. Work by Louis Eikaas is represented in the
National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design
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in Oslo, the
Bergen Museum of Art & Science,
Henie-Onstad Art Centre
The Henie Onstad Kunstsenter is an art museum located at Høvikodden in Bærum municipality in Viken county, Norway. It is situated on a headland jutting into the Oslofjord, approximately southwest of Oslo.
History
The artcentre was founded ...
,
Statens Museum for Kunst
The National Gallery of Denmark ( da, Statens Museum for Kunst, also known as "SMK", literally State Museum for Art) is the Danish national gallery, located in the centre of Copenhagen.
The museum collects, registers, maintains, researches and han ...
in
Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...
, the
Brooklyn Museum of Art
The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown H ...
, New York, the
Uffizi
The Uffizi Gallery (; it, Galleria degli Uffizi, italic=no, ) is a prominent art museum located adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in the Historic Centre of Florence in the region of Tuscany, Italy. One of the most important Italian museums ...
in
Florence, Italy
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...
Personal life
Eikaas became a Knight, First Class of the
Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav
Royal may refer to:
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. He was married to noted Norwegian textile artist,
Synnøve Anker Aurdal
Synnøve Anker Aurdal (8 December 1908 – 2 April 2000) was a Norwegian textile artist.
She was born in Kristiania (now Oslo), Norway to Nils Botvid Anker (1878–1943) and Gudrun Nilssen (1875–1958). She was the sister of librarian Øyv ...
(1908-2000).
Eikaas Gallery
At the beginning of the 1990s, Eikaas gave an art collection to his hometown of Jølster in Sogn og Fjordane. A separate gallery where this collection is on display, Eikaas Gallery (''Eikaasgalleriet''), was opened in 1994. The old dairy on Ålhus was purchased and converted into a modern art gallery, to receive the art collection Eikaas gave the municipality. This collection includes almost 800 works of art. In 2004, Eikaas Gallery consolidated operations with the Sogn og Fjordane Art Museum.
(Sunnfjord Næringsutvikling AS)
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References
Other sources
*Eikaas, Ludvig ''Innenfor sirkelen'' (Gyldendal 1983)
External links
Eikaasgalleriet official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eikaas, Ludvig
1920 births
2010 deaths
20th-century engravers
21st-century engravers
20th-century Norwegian painters
21st-century Norwegian painters
Norwegian male painters
Norwegian engravers
People from Jølster
20th-century Norwegian sculptors
20th-century Norwegian male artists
21st-century Norwegian male artists