Opening October 12 at Scandinavia House, Cutting Edges: Nordic Concrete Art from the Erling Neby Collection presents concrete art from the Nordic countries in a collection never before seen in the U.S. Curated by Karin Hellandsjø, Director Emeritus of the Henie Onstad Art Centre, this exhibition presents over 30 key works from major artists in painting, drawing, and sculpture.
A practice that was developed before and after World War II, and devised to avoid ambiguity in the word ‘abstract,’ concrete art is characterized by combinations of simple geometric elements to create autonomous visual realities. First used in 1929 by Theo van Doesburg and Piet Mondrian, internationally recognized artists such as Victor Vasarely, Max Bill, Burgoyne Diller, Jesús Rafael Soto, and Josef Albers became exponents of the practice, which attracted the attention of Nordic artists visiting the Geometric and Concrete art scene centered around the Galerie Denise René in Paris.
Much like their contemporaries in the U.S. and Paris, these Nordic artists became interested in creating concrete and non-objective artworks both social and universal, using pure form and color based on mathematical principles, in line with a new utopian vision. International exhibitions of concrete art also travelled to the Nordic capitals in the early years, leading to a dynamic, influential interaction with art centers in Europe and the Americas that has since continued up until this day.
