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Name Last Name
Born in 1923 at Steinkjer in Nord-Trøndelag,
Norway, Weidemann started his art training at
the Bergen Art School in 1939 before relocating
to Oslo a few years later to study at the
Norwegian National Academy of Fine Arts. In the
year he left the academy (1942), he held his first
solo exhibition.
WAR YEARS
His success, however, was overshadowed by the
occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany, and
Weidemann joined the Norwegian resistance
movement. He was arrested but managed
to escape to Sweden in 1944. There, an
accident involving an explosive charge left him
temporarily blinded. He only ever regained sight
in his left eye. Art historian Karin Hellandsjø
has suggested this blindness may be behind
the direction his art was to take—"towards an
explosion of colour and light."
AN ABSTRACT STYLE
Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, Weidemann
experimented with different artistic ideas and
eventually found his style in an expressive,
lyrically abstract art with nature as inspiration.
He did not use concrete, recognisable motifs but
depicted experiences and impressions, as well
as colours and shapes from the natural world
in an abstract way. Many of his paintings in this
style are characterised by light hues of blue, pink,
yellow, green and violet.
EXHIBITIONS AND RECOGNITION
His breakthrough exhibition took place at
Blomqvist's fine art gallery in Oslo in 1946, and
other notable showcases of his work took place
twice at the Bergen International Festival and at
JAKOB WEIDEMANN
Pivotal in introducing abstract
art to Norwegians after World
War II, painter Jakob Weidemann
is considered one of the most
influential artists in Norway.
ARTIST PROFILE
