SEVERIN HAINES
SKUDE 360Ëš
SEVERIN HAINES
SKUDE 360˚
NEW BEDFORD ART MUSEUM NEW BEDFORD, MASSACHUSETTS JANUARY 23 – MAY 23, 2008
NORDIC HERITAGE MUSEUM SEATTLE, WASHINGTON DECEMBER 5, 2008 – JANUARY 25, 2009
To the East, 2007 oil on canvas, 20 x 24 inches
608 Pleasant Street New Bedford, MA 02740
3014 N.W. 67th Street Seattle, WA 98117
tel 508.961.3072
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newbedfordartmuseum.org
nordicmuseum.org
CITY OF NEW BEDFORD
Catalog designed in New Bedford, Massachusetts by Mediumstudio.
cover: Seaweed at the Strand, 2007, oil on canvas, 30 x 34 inches
Catalog printed in New Bedford, Massachusetts by Reynolds DeWalt.
back cover: Karmsund, 2007, oil on canvas, 36 x 72 inches
CONTENTS 4 EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S FOREWORD KARIE C. VINCENT,
NEW BEDFORD ART MUSEUM EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
5 ARTIST’S STATEMENT 6 HISTORY OF SKUDE 8 INTERVIEW WITH SEVERIN HAINES DAVID B. BOYCE 40 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 40 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
View of Skudeneshavn, 2007 oil on canvas, 36 x 48 inches
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EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S FOREWORD The New Bedford Art Museum is pleased to host the first major American one-man show in ten years of new paintings by Severin Haines. A lifelong artist, well known art educator, and long-time Fairhaven resident, Sig, as he is known to friends and the Greater New Bedford community, is a painter of exceptional ability whose love of the natural bounty of the SouthCoast is a recurring subject of his work. With Skude 360°, Sig presents the viewer with a panoramic visual memoir of the dramatic landscapes and shorelines of his beloved Norwegian homeland, created in a remarkable palette of colors and hues. We know this exhibit will be a treat for our audiences, especially our Norwegian community. But for all appreciators of the art of painting, the show marks a celebration of an artist at the peak of his considerable creative talents. I want to extend my warmest thanks to Hannah Haines for curating this exhibit with such sensitivity and insight. Thank you to the Nordic Museum of Seattle, Washington, to which the show travels after its stay at NBAM; special thanks to our exhibition sponsors for their generous support; thanks also to NBAM’s Curatorial Consultant, David B. Boyce, for his guiding assistance; and finally, deepest thanks to Sig Haines for allowing NBAM to inaugurate this extraordinary exhibition. Karie C. Vincent Executive Director, New Bedford Art Museum
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ARTIST’S STATEMENT The locale for the motifs of the paintings that form this exhibition is Skude. Skude lies at the very end of a peninsula that is the southernmost tip of the island of Karmøy on the southwest coast of Norway. It is on the same latitude as the Orkney Islands directly across the North Sea. Skude was purchased in the 1930s by my grandfather and namesake Severin Roijen. It sits on a dramatic cliff overlooking views of Karmøy to north, the North Sea to the west, Boknfjord to the south and east, and Karmsund to the east. The Karmsund terminates in the north at the city of Haugesund. Ownership of Skude passed to the daughters of Severin Roijen and their families. His daughter Liv, my mother, presently owns the small house that sits on the edge the cliff. As a child I spent many summers at Skude enjoying the company of cousins, playing across the rocks, swimming, boating and fishing. It is for me a personal paradise that has come to myself and my family as an extraordinary legacy. The surrounding landscape of Skude is of a unique and spectacular character. It is part of an extremely rocky and essentially treeless coastline that is dotted with countless small islands, rock outcroppings, and reefs. This jagged irregular coast has been subject to the battering of violent North Sea storms for endless centuries. Weather patterns change and shift quickly, often displaying a different character at each of the four points of the compass. The elevated position of Skude offers spectacular views in all directions. Views shifting through all 360 degrees include the successive jutting hills and pastures of Karmøy to the north, the Gjetungen lighthouse and the weather and light of the North sea to the west, the low-lying island of Kvitsøy and beyond to the south, and views off Boknfjord, the prominent Boknfjell, and Karmsund to the east. The stone of the island is of a unique gray green resulting from its high copper content. The color shifts with the weather and the ever-changing light. The ocean tones change from the dramatic blue and crystal reflections of the western sun to ominous dark grays and black greens of approaching storms. Closer to land in shallow areas, the sea changes again with the effect of green and rich red brown seaweed. The elevated view allows a unique view down into rich deep green depths. Together, the stones and sea combine in reflections that serve to double the effect of the rugged rocks and cliffs.
Skude from the Southeast, 2007 oil on canvas, 48 x 48 inches
In recent years I have produced a large number of paintings of Skude and its surrounding area. These paintings have formed the basis of four separate one-person exhibitions, both in Norway and the United States. The focus of the work in this latest and largest exhibition is again on this extraordinary landscape of Skude and its exceptional views in all directions. Views signified by the title “Skude 360°.”
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HISTORY OF SKUDE NORVEGEN At Skude, the Karmsund opens onto the North Sea. The Karmsund is the first leg of a waterway that in the past was referred to as “Norvegen” or “the Norway” from which the nation gets its name. The Norvegen provided a passage sheltered from the ravaging extremes of North Sea weather. It made it possible to travel in the lea of coastal islands virtually all the way to the northernmost coast of Norway and provided a safe northern route to the seaports of an otherwise landlocked Russia. Consequently the route has seen major international maritime traffic that continues to the present time. Sitting as it does at the entrance of this waterway, it can reasonably be stated of Skude “Norway begins here.” “LOS”/PILOT STATION The small white building situated on the edge of the Skude cliff was a “los” or pilot station and lighthouse. The significant international traffic and treacherous rugged irregular coast of Norway required that a highly skilled and efficient pilot system be maintained. Skude was situated perfectly for this purpose. It provided a dramatic elevated view of the North Sea and all maritime traffic entering the Boknfjord and the Karmsund. Before the development of radar and radio communication, the pilot station at Skude was crucial to the movement of this heavy maritime traffic. GERMAN OCCUPATION With the German invasion and occupation of Norway during World War II, places of strategic importance were the first to be targeted for use by German forces. Skude, with its views of the North Sea, Karmsund, and Boknfjord, was immediately taken. From this view, all traffic in and out of the area could easily be observed. Germans at Skude targeted enemy activity both on the sea and in the air. A spotlight was placed below the cliff, which scanned for the English aircraft that frequently bombarded traffic on the fjord. The light provided targets for the cannons placed at a large installation situated on the heights just north of Skude called Trivali. During the war, many lives were lost in these waters within view of Skude.
Skude from the North, 2007 oil on canvas, 36 x 36 inches
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NORTH SEA OIL INDUSTRY In the more recent years, Skude has seen the development of the Norwegian North Sea Oil Industry. The giant oil platforms of this industry are a wonder of modern engineering and technology. Many of these platforms have been built within the Boknfjord and towed out to the oil fields passing within sight of Skude. This dramatic sight occurs regularly as new platforms are brought out and older ones are brought in for reconditioning. The traffic of numerous support vessels for the oil platforms has become a virtually constant presence in and out of the fjord and past Skude. The industry has given Norway its present status as having the highest standard of living in the world.
Boathouses in Skudenes, 2004 oil on canvas, 36 x 48 inches
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INTERVIEW WITH THE ARTIST AND DAVID B. BOYCE David B. Boyce: In thinking about the work in this show, it appears evident that you are a colorist painter. Would you agree? Severin Haines: Yes. Color is major. The fact that I teach color theory springs from my being a colorist, and that comes from a critique I received as a student from the painter, Leland Bell (American, 1922-1991). He came through our studios at the Swain School of Design when I was a junior there, and he looked at my paintings and was very nice, very helpful and enthusiastic about the work, but just as he was walking out the door, he looked back and said, “But you’re not painting in color,” and was gone. Then in my first year of graduate work at Yale about two years later, who should we get as a visiting critic but Leland Bell. And he goes through all the student studios and comes to mine and says, “How ya doin’, man,” because he’s a bit of a hipster and a jazz drummer, and he recognizes me. Again, he was very complimentary about my work, but as he was going out the door, he says, “But you’re not painting in color.” (laughter) Well, it drove me nuts, because I didn’t want to admit that I didn’t know what the hell he was talking about! I mean, I had a full palette of color, and there was color in the paintings, so I didn’t know what he meant. And it came to me later, when a friend of mine made the comment that there is space in Jackson Pollock’s (American, 1912-1956) paintings, space created by layers of paint that distinguish themselves with differing colors working against one another. That contrast of colors opens space. Now that realization, though it seems very elemental and basic when stated that succinctly and absolutely, became very clear to me. So I always tell my students now that, for me, color is the plastic element of painting. That is what we manipulate when we make space and form in paint, over even value or black-and-white.
Beiningen, 2004 oil on canvas, 36 x 48 inches
Drawing can do that, but the major difference for me between painting and drawing is not the difference between wet and dry media; it’s the difference between color and blackand-white. DBB: Among artists from the past who are considered colorists or color theorists, who has most influenced your thinking and your work? SH: I take from them all, but the most important for me, who makes space from color, is Paul Cézanne (French, 1839-1906). Claude Monet (French, 1840-1926) is huge as a colorist, but with a very different view, and once I began to understand color, it then became more of an aesthetic thing, as well, and it opened up a whole new vista of painters. I love the landscape painters – Edouard Vuillard (French, 1868-1940) and Pierre Bonnard (French, 1867-1947), and several others of the Post-Impressionist group. I think there are many fascinating artists in that group that are too often ignored, but when you consider them as colorists, they’re fascinating. Once you understand that aesthetic, it’s easier to appreciate the more contemporary color-field painters, like Jules Olitski (Russian/American, 1922-2007), for example.
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Rocks Toward Gjetungen, 2005 oil on canvas, 24 x 24 inches
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DBB: Any others? SH: That was quite a leap, wasn’t it? Well, of course, Henri Matisse (French, 1869-1954) was a “color god” who probably serves as the transition to the 20th century. And Pollock wasn’t really a colorist, but it was through him I found my understanding of color as the agent for creating space. Earlier, probably some of Piet Mondrian (Dutch, 1872-1944); I see early Willem de Kooning (Dutch-born American, 1904-1997) as a colorist; and Hans Hofmann (German-born/American, 1880-1966) was certainly not afraid of color, and very high color. DBB: I think Andy Warhol (American, 1928-1987) showed us that any color can go with any other color, but Hofmann had really shown that earlier. SH: Warhol could actually be quite subtle, in comparison. In my color theory course, I often begin with Hofmann. The idea of using high key color, however, can be very challenging to students, I’ve noticed. Many are afraid of getting that degree of high contrast. It seems to scare them. They always want to temper it. I call it a fear of contrast. DBB: And therefore a fear of commitment. Renowned as an important colorist and a teacher at Yale, where does Josef Albers (German-born American, 1888-1976) fit in for you? SH: Well, he does, absolutely. I had his color course at Yale, taught by Richard Lytle (American, 1935 - ) who taught it just as Albers had before he left. He taught it in a Socratic way, in that you were given a color problem that you had to solve by doing rather than having been told or shown. As a teacher, I’m too impatient for that! (laughter) DBB: What other technical aspects of painting intrigue you? SH: More and more, I find myself interested in surfaces, but somehow I never quite get there because I have this other idea - some aspect of color gets in the way of pursuing it more thoroughly! For me, color takes priority. Some people look at my work and can’t seem to rectify my being a colorist with my being a landscape painter. As a young painter, I think I was unwilling to sacrifice a talent I’ve always had for drawing. I was praised up and down from the age of five or six for my ability to draw, to reproduce very easily what I see. So in my classes at Yale, I was one of only a very few representational painters, which is a really interesting circumstance for a representational painter, because too often, others believe you to be naïve. And it was then a very predominant feeling at the time I was there. I had to be very strong and sure about my thinking.
North Sea Light, 2004 oil on canvas, 40 x 48 inches collection of Rick and Becky Wilhelmsen
DBB: That couldn’t have been easy back in the late 1960s and early ‘70s. That was the time of the end of Pop Art, but the birthing of Conceptualism, Minimalism, Process art, Performance art, and all kinds of movements that sprang from the fertile ground that Jasper Johns (American, 1930- ) and Bob Rauschenberg (American, 1925- ) had plowed after Abstract Expressionism. There was representational imagery in a lot of art then, but usually within at least a conceptual or abstract context. It was a tough time for purely representational artists. SH: My first week there, they had us all talk about our work, and there I was seeing all this abstraction, and here I come with my landscapes, and they looked at me like I was provincial and naïve. It was awful, terrible for me! But by the time I left, I was arguing with the best of them, and I was good! It was good for me.
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So I needed to find a way to combine my interests in color structure and theory with my love of nature. I went to landscape not because I had a particular love for landscape, but it was the only place I could find that color space that a Pollock had. So, I purposely went out and found the most tangled masses of briars, branches, bushes and shrubs that mimicked in a representational way what a Pollock did with its drips. And it was through that process that I felt I’d finally found my own artistic voice.
Cliff Toward Vik, 2005 oil on canvas, 24 x 24 inches
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Mackerel Tern Rock, 2005 oil on canvas, 30 x 30 inches collection of Diane and Howard Clausen
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Seaweed and Rocks, 2007 oil on canvas, 36 x 36 inches
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Boknfjell, 2007 oil on canvas, 36 x 36 inches
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The Strand, 2007 oil on canvas, 36 x 36 inches
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East by Southeast, 2007 oil on canvas, 18 x 18 inches
Southeast, 2007 oil on canvas, 18 x 18 inches
South by Southeast, 2007 oil on canvas, 18 x 18 inches
South, 2007 oil on canvas, 18 x 18 inches
Southwest, 2007 oil on canvas, 18 x 18 inches
West by Southwest, 2007 oil on canvas, 18 x 18 inches
West, 2007 oil on canvas, 18 x 18 inches
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Rocks and Foam, 2007 oil on canvas, 36 x 36 inches
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North Sea Coast, 2004 oil on canvas, 48 x 48 inches
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Storm, 2007 oil on canvas, 36 x 48 inches
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Over Rocks to Boknfjord, 2007 oil on canvas, 36 x 48 inches
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Noon Backlight, 2007 oil on canvas, 36 x 48 inches
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Sheep, 2007 oil on canvas, 36 x 48 inches
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Toward Skudeneshavn, 2007 oil on canvas, 48 x 72 inches
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Clouds over Gjetungen, 2007 oil on canvas, 48 x 72 inches
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Falnes, 2007 oil on canvas, 36 x 48 inches
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SEVERIN HAINES - BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Severin Haines received his BFA from the Swain School of Design in 1968 and his MFA from Yale University’s School of Art and Architecture in 1972. From 1975 until 1988 he taught as a member of the faculty of the Swain School of Design in New Bedford, Massachusetts. He served as the chairman of the Swain School Painting Department from 1979 until 1988. He began teaching at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth with the merger of the Swain School and the university. He is now a Professor of Fine Arts at UMass. Since 1977, Haines has exhibited in the New Bedford area with numerous one-person exhibitions including those at the Nemasket Gallery of Fairhaven, the Water Street Gallery of Mattapoisett, the Marion Art Center, and the Facets Gallery of Fall River. He has mounted a retrospective exhibition of his work at Keystone Junior College in Pennsylvania. He has also exhibited in one-person and group shows in Norway. His work has been included in group exhibitions in New York and Boston. Haines is the recipient of two Massachusetts Arts Lottery Council grants for murals at the Nemasket Gallery and at the Leroy Wood School, both in Fairhaven, Massachusetts. He has curated three major exhibitions for the New Bedford Art Museum. Severin is currently represented by Galleri Amare in Stavanger, Norway.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thank you to Isaksen Fishing Corporation, Milton and Arla Dahlene, John and Ellen Isaksen, and Peter DeWalt for their generous support. Hannah Haines NBAM Board of Trustees Guest Curator 42
NEW BEDFORD ART MUSEUM
NORDIC HERITAGE MUSEUM
NEW BEDFORD, MASSACHUSETTS JANUARY 23 – MAY 23, 2008
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON DECEMBER 5, 2008 – JANUARY 25, 2009