The Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris Honours Anna-Eva Bergman with “A Journey Within”
While we are all familiar with the work of her husband, Hans Hartung, Anna-Eva Bergman’s oeuvre seems to have gone unnoticed by the general public. This is one of the reasons why the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris has decided to dedicate a retrospective exhibition to this outstanding artist, who witnessed a 20th century turned upside down by the rise of Nazism and the war. Anna-Eva Bergman began as a mere critical observer of her time, bearing testimony to the political and social upheavals of the 1930s through her illustrations.
Gradually, the Norwegian artist turned towards painting, where she explored her fascination for light and nature, a recurring theme of her work. During the 40s, she described her approach as “art of abstracting” and experimented with new formats, her so-called “mini-paintings”. She also renewed her artistic vocabulary by introducing a limited number of simple forms like the moon, the stars, the planet or the tree.
Characterized by a deep sense of mysticism and the sacred, Anna-Eva Bergman’s oeuvre is both elaborate and complex. This unprecedented retrospective was inaugurated on Wednesday 29, an event attended by Her Majesty the Queen of Norway, Sonja Haraldsen, Mrs Brigitte Macron, His Excellency the Norwegian Ambassador Niels Engelschiøn, Mrs Carine Rolland, Deputy Mayor of Paris in charge of culture and the city, Mr Arnaud Ngatcha, Deputy Mayor of Paris in charge of international relations and the French-speaking world, Ms Anne-Sophie de Gasquet, Director General of Paris Musées, Fabrice Hergott, Director of the museum and Hélène Leroy, exhibition curator.
Also present were Charlotte Rampling, Emmanuel Perrotin, Jérôme Poggi, Alain Flammarion, Jean-Paul Agon, Daniel Malingre and Thomas Schlesser.
Photos: Michael Huard
