MM UT 23. The Frieze of Life

A booklet to accompany an exhibition at Blomqvist 's in 1918.

MM UT 23, p. 1

The Frieze of Life

    I have been working on this Frieze, including lengthy interludes,
for approximately 30 years. The first loose drafts stem
from the years 1888 – 89. Kiss, the so-called “yellow
boat”, Street (?), Man and Woman as well as Angst
were painted in 1890 – 91 and were exhibited for the first time together
in Tostrupgaarden  in this city  in 1892 and later the same
year at my first exhibition in Berlin. The following year
the series was expanded with new works, among them Vampire, Scream
and Madonna, and exhibited as an autonomous frieze
in private premises on Unter den Linden. It was
exhibited in 1902 in the Berlin Secession  – where it
formed a continuous frieze around the large
antechamber – consisting partly of the modern life of the Soul. After that
it was exhibited at Blomqvist in 1903 and 1904.

    Certain art critics have attempted to demonstrate that
the concept behind this Frieze was influenced by German
thinking and by my association with Strindberg in
Berlin; it is my hope that the above-mentioned information suffices
to put this assertion to rest.

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    The atmospheric content of the various
panels of the Frieze stem directly from the upheavals of the 80s
and constitute a reaction to the prevailing
realism of the time.

    The Frieze is intended as a number of decorative
pictures, which together would represent an image of life.
The sinuous shoreline weaves through them all,
beyond it is the ocean, which is in constant motion, and
beneath the treetops multifarious life unfolds
with all of its joys and sorrows.

    The Frieze is intended as a poem about life, about love
and about death. It may appear that the motif in the largest picture
of the two of them, the man and the woman in the forest, stands
somewhat apart from the ideas in the other panels,
yet it is as necessary for the entire Frieze
as a buckle is for a belt. It is an image
of life as well as death, the forest that soaks up nourishment from
the dead and the city that grows up behind the trees.
It is an image of life’s resilient and enduring forces.

    As mentioned earlier, I conceived the ideas for the majority
of these pictures already in my early youth,
more than 30 years ago, yet the task has gripped me
so powerfully that I have never since been able to let
it go, despite the fact that I received no external encouragement
whatsoever to continue, let alone received any
encouragement from someone or other, who

MM UT 23, p. 3

might be interested in seeing the whole
series collected in a hall. Several of the pictures from the series
have consequently been sold over the years, some to Rasmus
Meyer’s collection , some to the National Gallery , among
them Ashes and The Dance of Life, Scream, The Sick Room and
Madonna. The pictures with the same motifs that are
exhibited here are later versions.

    It was my intention that the Frieze should be placed
in a hall that was architectonically suited to form
a fitting framework around it, so that each individual
panel was shown to its total advantage without the overall
impression being compromised, but unfortunately no one who has
the intention of realising this plan has
appeared yet.

    The Frieze of Life should also be seen in connection with the
University decorations  – which in several
respects it served as the forerunner for and without which
they could not possibly have been executed. It served
to develop my sense of decorative art. As a concept they should also
be considered together. The Frieze of Life represents
the individual’s sorrows and joys seen at close range –
the University decorations represent the great enduring
forces.

    Both the Frieze of Life and the University decorations
come together in the Frieze of Life’s large painting of Man and Woman
in the Forest with the radiant city in the background.

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    It cannot be considered totally completed as it has been
under production this entire time with long interludes.
Due to the lengthy period of time during which it has been worked on,
it obviously cannot be uniform in technique. –
I consider several of the pictures to be studies, and
it has also been my intention to make them more cohesive
once the right space was found.

    I now exhibit the Frieze once again, first of all because I
feel that it is too good to be forgotten, and then because
it has meant so much to me in a purely artistic sense
throughout these many years, that I myself wish
to see it assembled in its entirety.

MM UT 23, p. 1

About the Criticism

    One has become totally overwhelmed by
the title Frieze of Life – yet the name does not disparage anyone.
Quite honestly the last thing I think of when I paint
is the name, and it is more to offer a hint
– than to provide any additional meaning that
I have called it “The Frieze of Life”.

    It should be self-evident that I do not intend for it
to represent life in its entirety.

    It was exhibited in Berlin in 1902 under the designation
From the Modern Life of the Soul. It has also been exhibited
under that same title in Kristiania  in the Diorama premises  at the beginning of
this century.

    And yet one does not understand how I could exhibit
the pictures as a frieze.

    These jumbled pictures, which after
30 years of a plunderer’s life, like a shipwreck
with half its rigging washed away, finally came to a

MM UT 23, p. 2

haven of sorts out at Skøyen  – are apparently not
suited to be mounted as a complete frieze.

    I have obviously had many plans for
these pictures. I have also imagined that
the house that they would decorate would have many rooms. In that way,
the pictures of death could be placed in a small room
by themselves, either as a frieze or even as
large wall panels.

    Can one not envision these [pictures]
decorating a room held in subdued colours
that harmonize with the pictures, and can one not
envision the connection between this room and
the frieze with motifs from the shore and the forest
that would decorate a large adjacent room? Some
of the pictures could of course serve as
panels, others as decorations above a door.

    I have also thought of another solution.
The entire Frieze painted in a very large format; the
motif with the shore and the forest more integrated
in all of the panels.

    Reams have been written claiming that the pictures do not
fit together, that they have different techniques.
The remarks of the critic in “Verdens Gang ”
are astounding, all the more after my clarification in
the catalogue.

    It is something that everyone can see. That I have planned for

MM UT 23, p. 3

them to be adapted, and also repainted, to fit
the place they shall decorate is quite explicitly
stated in the foreword.

    I would consider it a mistake to have completed
the Frieze before having decided upon the room,
and before the finances for its completion were
available to me.

    It is unbelievable to me that a critic, who is
simultaneously a painter, cannot find a connection between
the pictures in the series. Not a single connection, he
claims.

    Half of the pictures have such a connection
that they may with the greatest ease be combined
into one single long large picture. The pictures
with the shore and the trees in which the same colour
tones are repeated – the summer night provides
the unified tone. The trees and the ocean create vertical and
horizontal lines, which are repeated in all of
them, the shore and the human figures provide the sinuous,
living tones – intense colours create an echo
of harmony throughout the pictures. The paintings
are, certainly, for the most part observations – documentations
– sketches – rough drafts – themes.

    That is their strength.

    One must also think of the genesis of these pictures throughout
these 30 years – one in an attic room

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in Nizza  – one in a dark room in Paris, one
in Berlin – some in Norway, always while travelling in the
most difficult of conditions, under the most persistent
persecution – without the least bit of encouragement.

    The room to be decorated was more than anything
a pipe dream.

    Had the necessary encouragement come at the right
time, the effect would quite likely have been
otherwise – and the Frieze would have presumably
gained different dimensions and had perhaps acquired a richer and more
powerful image of life than these documents.

    I ask the critics, whom I allude to, to go up [to the exhibit]
on a day with strong warm sunshine; there in the haze of the sun
the series of pictures will fuse together. Do not look so pedantically
at the various techniques and lack of
artistry. I believe they will see my intention, after all,
and also discover that there is an abundance of harmony in
the sequence of pictures.

    Wallpapering a wall has never been my strong point, and
I have never bothered with it either.

    I am thinking of the Sistine Chapel. There is
no wallpaper effect in Michel Angelo ’s works.
They are decorative images, which are arranged together.
And yet I find that the hall is the most beautiful
in the world.

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    I hope that another critic does not flatter himself
because I take notice of him. The hopeless
bastard of an insufferable painter and insufferable critic,
who has found the available position in “Aftenposten ”
as coachman for that manure cart, which for
40 years has carried the waste from its Augean stable
to the garden of fine art.

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    So much for that! To repeat my clarification, I have not
given the picture a final form intentionally.

    But I would like to state:

    I find that it already now, as it hangs
at Blomquist , is well on its way to satisfying
the requirements for a decorative frieze.

    I do not find that a frieze always needs to have
a consistent uniformity, which quite often makes
decorations and friezes so miserably boring, so that
one could almost say that decorations and friezes –
well, they are paintings that almost never receive
attention.

    I believe a frieze can certainly have
the effect of a symphony. It can improve in the light
and deteriorate in the depths. It can rise and fall
in forcefulness. Its notes can likewise be heard and
resound through them, shrill notes and the sounds of drums
can appear intermittently.

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    Just as there can be rhythm.

    Even now at Blomquist  the Frieze of Life has
the effect of a symphony, of rhythm. And one can,
with a bit of good will, see it clearly at Blomquist
despite the fact that shortness of time did not allow a more
advantageous hanging.

    I am also in complete disagreement with the idea that a frieze
should consist of equally large panels. On the contrary,
I believe that differing sizes create more life.
And above doors and windows it is often necessary
to have other formats.

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    I consider the series of pictures to be one of my most
important oeuvres, if not the most important.

    It has never been met with any recognition here at
home. It has first and foremost received its earliest
and greatest recognition in Germany.

    But it also received acknowledgement in Paris;
as early as 1897 it was hung in a place of honour on the main
wall in the final and best room at
l’Independant  – and was among those of my pictures
that were most recognised in France.

    In conclusion a small observation:

    The perpetually acerbic and boring critic in
“Intelligenssedlerne ” recounts that he has seen all

MM UT 23, p. [7]

of the pictures before. That the paper, which is known
to be the most boring in the country, also must have a boring
critic is obvious, but he should in any case consider his
advancing age – it is approaching the
geriatric stage, and he should know that a new generation
has grown up, since it was last exhibited.
The same critic predicts that a patron will likely appear
and find a room for the Frieze, buy a plot of land and
build a house for it. This time he predicted
correctly. I have built a house for them myself. And if
one day he is able to leave behind his acerbic mien, he is
welcome to come by to see them.

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