Page 82 - Famous

ROLF JANSSON

Lives and works in Horten, Norway
www.studio.no

On a snowy day, artist Rolf Jansson can look out of his studio window and self-exploration movement in the 1970s, he worked in a variety of positions,
watch the deer feeding in the woods. His home and studio sit halfway up a including stints as a minister and a merchant seaman (a career cut short by
mountain in a Norwegian village where families ski together in winter and chronic seasickness). In 1984 he conceived the idea of a short animated film,
sail on the fjord in the long twilight of a Scandinavian summer. “Living in a which he presented to the Norwegian Broadcasting System. With funding and
small town in Norway is very nice, very peaceful,” he says. “Norway is a very technical help from the network, he put together his five minute film, a fantasy
optimistic kind of country.” That peace and optimism infuses his sometimes about a man caught in a frame who finally escapes by turning himself inside
colorful compositions. An award winning artist whose work has been used out. The film proved oddly prophetic. After its broadcasts, commissions began
for a variety of projects, from Olympic posters to various exhibitions, Jansson to come in for more artwork, and before long Jansson had turned from other
has spent the last decade and a half developing his distinctive style. His pursuits to concentrate entirely on painting and drawing. In his own work Rolf is
work has received wide recognition and has been published in numerous still longing for ‘perfection’: “I struggle to create something that really is good,
international publications. He studied fine art in the late 1960s in Copenhagen. even consummate. Even if I know that fulfillment may lead to complacency, it is
He enrolled at the highly regarded Statens Kunst-og handvaerker skole (The still something I pursue. Fortunately it hasn’t yet come to fruition...” In search
Danish State Artist College) at a time when the Danish capital was populated of new inspiration I enjoy looking at what my peers do, finding new ways of
with hippies and bohemians from all over the world, as well as American thinking, different ways of solving problems. “I feel comfortable here in Horten,”
Vietnam War deserters seeking safe haven. Influenced by the progressive he says, “but I have a constant urge to travel abroad-a need to breathe fresh
thinking in Amsterdam, a part of Copenhagen named Christiana soon became air. Even going to Copenhagen is very rewarding. I feel free and find stimulation
the center of free-thinking and free-spirited living in Scandinavia. Jansson, a in big cities. Wandering about in any large international city frees me of my
curious Norwegian, found himself deeply involved in all of this, even though chains. Even going to nearby Oslo, which I do far too rarely, is liberating.” Rolf
he took the long way around to discover his artistic calling. Caught up in the is involved in exhibitions both in Norway and Denmark.
 HORIZON, OIL ON CANVAS 200X100 CM
NEGATIV, OIL ON CANVAS 70X140 CM 

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FAMOUS
CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS