Northern Lights

The Forest in Modernist Art

The fascination of the North is enduring: vast, impenetrable coniferous forests on the edge of the Arctic polar region, "white" summer nights, the long darkness of snowy winters, and the famous Northern Lights exert a magical attraction.

The Fondation Beyeler is dedicating an exhibition to this global phenomenon with landscape paintings from the late 19th and early 20th centuries from Scandinavia, Finland, and Canada. In addition to works by famous painters such as Edvard Munch, Akseli Gallen-Kallela, and Hilma af Klint, it also features paintings by artists who are highly respected in their home countries, but who—unjustly—have been virtually unknown in Central Europe until now.

The Nordic pictorial worlds of Harald Sohlberg, Gustaf Fjæstad, Emily Carr, Tom Thomson, and Prince Eugen of Sweden are finally being presented to a wide audience. Other artists represented in the exhibition and catalogue are Ivan Shishkin, Anna Boberg, Helmi Biese, Fanny Churberg, Lawren S. Harris, and J. E. H. MacDonald.