New Alphabet (J)

Woodcut

Gerd Tinglum has always had a particular interest in colors, and has throughout the years developed a personal color alphabet where every color has a unique significance. In her series "New Alphabet" Tinglum has created woodcuts in primary and complementary colors. She views colors as a different language, and believes the colors that surround us in everyday life contain significance that shapes and affects us. The vividly colored surfaces appear as modernist, visual explorations, while simultaneously being a result of meticulous methods and concepts. Tinglum lets the content, i.e. the letter, decide the color, and consistently makes use of 11 colors developed from foundational color theory. The choice of woodcut as medium is not a coincidence. Here Tinglum points to etymology, and that the word "bokstav" (letter) stems from "bøkestav" (birch staff). Thus, when Tinglum started working on her new color alphabet it was a given that the series should be realized by the print method woodcut. In crafting each motif Tinglum asks the question; How little of the wood plate can be cut away to create a letter?. The series is an intriguing, colorful exploration of the visual shapes of the alphabet, and the language of colors.

The series varies up to 12 editions of each motif. As the color transfer from wood plate to paper is so diverse, the prints come out very different. Some dark, some light, some with pronounced wooden texture, other with little. For this reason, each print is so different the series are not numbered.

The entire series from A to Å is acquired by Oslo City Municipality Art Collection, and Trondheim Art Gallery.

64 x 50 cm
Edition: 12
NOK 7,500.00
+ 5% art tax

Gerd Tinglum (b.1951, Trøndelag) was educated as a visual artist at the Fachhochschule für Gestaltung Hamburg (1969–72), Hochschule für Bildende Künste Hamburg (1975–77), Norwegian National Academy of Fine Arts (1977–80) and Tokyo University of Fine Arts (1980–82). She was a professor of painting at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts from 1996 to 2009, and then at the Bergen Academy of Art and Design beginning in 2012, before becoming the principal there in 2014. Tinglum is regarded as a pioneer within the Norwegian conceptual art movement, and several of her works were included in the exhibition Stille revolt: Norsk prosess- og konseptkunst på 70- og 80-tallet at the Museum of Contemporary Art in 2016. Tinglum works with diverse mediums like painting, drawing, video, photography, sound, and textile, and pragmatically resolves what materials her ideas are realized through. She has a particular interest for pure colors, and has throughout the years developed a personal color alphabet, where each color has a particular denotation.

Tinglums works can be found in numerous private and public collections, amongst others The National Museum, Oslo , Trondheim Art Museum, Lillehammer Art Museum, The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, KODE Art Museum, Oslo City Councils Art Collection and Norwegian Culture Council.

More artworks