Regional Modernism

The American-Scandinavian Foundation’s third and final centennial exhibition, Luminous Modernism: Scandinavian Art Comes to America, 1912 will culminate in a major, all-day symposium in February 2012. The program, Regional Modernism: New Art in Scandinavia, 1880-1912, will offer audiences an in-depth look at the art, history, and cultural relations of the Scandinavian countries during the dynamic decades of the early 20th century.

The symposium is composed of two featured keynote addresses, a series of short individual presentations by experts from each participating country, and two panel conversations, followed by a light reception. Presenters will explore the ways in which the distinct, regional modernism of the Nordic countries communicated with the rest of continental Europe at the turn-of-the-century and how it came to influence North America’s own modern artists following their exposure to the 1912 Exhibition of Scandinavian Art. The engaging program will present expert insight on the careers of well-known early modern masters including Anders Zorn, Edvard Munch, and Vilhelm Hammershøi, as well as advanced research on the ways in which Scandinavian modernism relates to the work of North American artists such as Marsden Hartley, Canada’s Group of Seven, and the notorious Stieglitz Circle.