National Museum of Norway - Museum of Contemporary Art

24th February 2014

Aase Texmon Rygh. Modernism Forever!
7 March–28 September 2014

Opening: Thursday 6 March, 18h
Featuring a performance by Jennie Bringaker

National Museum of Norway
Museum of Contemporary Art
Bankplassen 4, Oslo
Hours: Tuesday–Wednesday, Friday 11–17h,
Thursday 11–19h, Saturday–Sunday 12–17h

www.nasjonalmuseet.no

The Museum of Contemporary Art is pleased to present the first in-depth museum solo exhibition of the Norwegian sculptress Aase Texmon Rygh (b. 1925). Spanning more than sixty years of her career, the exhibition presents a wide range of works by one of Norway's first sculptors to be concerned with abstraction.

Much like British contemporaries Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore, Aase Texmon Rygh explored the shape of the abstracted and simplified human figure in the 1950s and 1960s. Over the course of several years she developed an abstract language where motion and gesture played a central part. Later in her career she left the human figure behind altogether, and developed a purely abstract formal language as she became interested in concepts of stability, perpetuity and eternity.

Disregarding limited recognition Texmon Rygh has continued to work within a tradition of abstract modernism with a firm belief in sculpture. The exhibition brings attention to an artist who has been vital to challenging the language of sculpture, both within a gallery setting and in public space. The artist continues to produce today, and the exhibition includes a series of new works in the Moebius series, marking the sculptor's longstanding interest in the mathematical Moebius strip and its philosophical qualities.

The exhibition is accompanied by a lavishly illustrated catalogue with essays by curator Randi Godø and art-historian Sigrun Åsebø, available from the museum shop.

Concurrent public programme

Performance by Jennie Bringaker
Saturday, 26 April 13h

Seminar on Norwegian Abstraction
Saturday, 30 August 11h

Further programme details will be announced on www.nasjonalmuseet.no.

For images and further information please see www.nasjonalmuseet.no or contact Eva Engeset at eva.engeset[AT]nasjonalmuseet.no.

The exhibition's concurrent programme is made possible with the generous support of Fritt Ord.

IMAGE
Aase Texmon Rygh, "Moebius Round," 2008. Bronze.
Photo: Øystein Thorvaldsen.