Forms of Modern Life: From the Archives of Guttorm Guttormsgaard' considers the process by which the graphic form becomes, in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, a universal, egalitarian form of expression, moved by both a development of formal and technical concerns and the intention to communicate and to mobilise. The project explores how artists such as Thomas Bewick, Frans Masereel and Albert Jærn in printed form, Hannah Ryggen through her tapestries, and Peder Balke and Lars Hertervig in their paintings, used graphic forms to address the world in which they lived, picturing their environment and the cultural and political changes of their time with an emphasis on class consciousness and individual agency, and often with a revolutionary impulse, overcoming obstacles both in the making of their work and in the social position assigned to it.
Curated by OCA's director Marta Kuzma and associate curator Pablo Lafuente, this project is on view from 9 March through 25 June 2011. 'Forms of Modern Life' is supported with a generous grant from Fritt Ord in Oslo. It will be followed by a publication as part of OCA's ongoing Verksted series
