Jonsborg Tapistry Saw mill Oslo Town Hall

Jonsborg Tapistry display Oslo Town Hall 06

Kåre Mikkelsen Jonsborg (11 January 1912 – 10 July 1977) was a Norwegian

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

and

textile artist Textile arts are arts and crafts that use plant, animal, or synthetic fibers to construct practical or decorative objects. Textiles have been a fundamental part of human life since the beginning of civilization. The methods and materials use ...

Background

Kåre Jonsborg was born at Kristiania (now Oslo), Norway. He was the son of John Andreas Mikkelsen (1873-1944) and Anne Elise Ebbell (1884-1950). At five years of age, his family moved to

Solør Solør is a Norwegian traditional district consisting of the valley between Elverum in the north and Kongsvinger in the south. It is part of Innlandet county and it includes Våler Municipality, Åsnes Municipality, and Grue Municipality. G ...

, where his father worked as an artsmith. He studied under

Axel Revold Axel Revold (24 December 1887 – 11 April 1962) was a Norwegian painter, illustrator, and art professor at the Norwegian National Academy of Fine Arts for twenty years. He was highly decorated for his merits. Personal life Revold was bo ...

Jean Heiberg Jean Hjalmar Dahl Heiberg (19 December 1884 – 27 May 1976) was a Norwegian painter, sculptor, designer and art professor. Personal life Heiberg was born in Kristiania (now Oslo), Norway. He was the son of Hjalmar Heiberg (1837–97) and Jea ...

and Georg Jacobsen at the

Norwegian National Academy of Craft and Art Industry The National College of Art and Design () was established in 1818. In 1996, the National College of Art and Design became part of Oslo National Academy of the Arts (''Kunsthøgskolen i Oslo'', KHiO), along with the Norwegian National Academy of ...

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

from 1933-38. From 1965 until his death in 1977, he was employed by the

Norwegian National Academy of Fine Arts The Norwegian National Academy of Arts () was a former Norwegian tertiary institution in Oslo, offering studies in the area of fine art. Along with four other academies, it merged to form the Oslo National Academy of the Arts (, KHiO) in 1996. ...

Career

Jonsborg debuted at the Autumn Exhibition (''Høstutstillingen'') in Oslo during 1935. Three years later he won the 3rd prize in the competition for decoration in Oslo City Hall. His works span from

oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) and lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturate ...

tempera Tempera (), also known as egg tempera, is a permanent, fast-drying painting medium consisting of pigments mixed with a water-soluble binder medium, usually glutinous material such as egg yolk. ''Tempera'' also refers to the paintings done in ...

, woodcutting and through to stone

mosaic A mosaic () is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/Mortar (masonry), mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and ...

s. He created a number of altar pieces among others in Svalbard Church and Tonsen Church in Oslo. He also created a vast production of figurative paintings and tapestry designs including at Steinkjer Church. For many years he had a fruitful partnership with textile artist Else Halling (1899-1987), aiming to find a useful range of plant dyes for dying wool from spelsau. The cooperation resulted in significant achievements including designs for monumental tapestries in

Oslo City Hall Oslo City Hall () is a municipal building in Oslo, the capital of Norway. It houses the city council, the city's administration and various other municipal organisations. The building as it stands today was constructed between 1931 and 1950, wi ...

(woven by Else Halling). In his art he was dedicated to geometrical theories of how to build and compose pictures, of the art and colour theories of

Piero della Francesca Piero della Francesca ( , ; ; ; – 12 October 1492) was an Italian Renaissance painter, Italian painter, mathematician and List of geometers, geometer of the Early Renaissance, nowadays chiefly appreciated for his art. His painting is charact ...

Paul Cézanne Paul Cézanne ( , , ; ; ; 19 January 1839 – 22 October 1906) was a French Post-Impressionism, Post-Impressionist painter whose work introduced new modes of representation, influenced avant-garde artistic movements of the early 20th century a ...

Pablo Picasso Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, Ceramic art, ceramicist, and Scenic ...

Eugène Delacroix Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix ( ; ; 26 April 1798 – 13 August 1863) was a French people, French Romanticism, Romantic artist who was regarded as the leader of the French Romantic school.Noon, Patrick, et al., ''Crossing the Channel: ...

. All his life he studied the old masters and travelled in Europe and collected a vast documentation of the masters' composition techniques. He was an invited participant at the international biennale, "Biennale internationale de tapisserie" in the

Cantonal Museum of Fine Arts The Cantonal Museum of Fine Arts () is an art museum in Lausanne, Switzerland. Collection The museum was created by private initiative in 1841, with funds provided by the artist Marc-Louis Arlaud, who became its first curator. Private funds st ...

Lausanne Lausanne ( , ; ; ) is the capital and largest List of towns in Switzerland, city of the Swiss French-speaking Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Vaud, in Switzerland. It is a hilly city situated on the shores of Lake Geneva, about halfway bet ...

and is discussed in the work of Pierre Verlet-Michel Florisone and Adolf Hoffmeister-Francois Tabard: ''Le grand livre de la tapisserie'' (Paris: Bibliothèque des arts, 1965). He was awarded a number of distinctions including Schlytters og Mohrs legat (1939), Statens reisestipend (1952) and Thomas Fearnleys Minnestipend (1955). He is represented in

the National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of more than 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current dire ...

in Oslo and was awarded the

King's Medal of Merit The King's Medal of Merit (Norwegian: ''Kongens fortjenstmedalje'') is a Norwegian award. It was instituted in 1908 to reward meritorious achievements in the fields of art, science, business, and public service. It is divided in two classes: gold ...

(''Kongens fortjenstmedalje'').

References

Other Sources

*Waadeland, Ruth (2008
''Kunstneren Kåre Mikkelsen Jonsborg: jakobineren fra de store skoger''
(Trondheim : Tapir akademisk forl) {{DEFAULTSORT:Jonsborg, Kaare 1912 births 1977 deaths People from Grue, Norway 20th-century Norwegian painters Norwegian tapestry artists Norwegian woodcarvers Oslo National Academy of the Arts alumni Academic staff of the Oslo National Academy of the Arts Recipients of the King's Medal of Merit