Ludvig Eikaas (20 December 1920 – 5 September 2010) was a Norwegian painter, graphic artist and sculptor. Eikaas was among the first artists in Norway to work in a purely non-figurative idiom.

Biography

Ludvig Eikaas was born in the small hamlet of Eikaas in Jølster municipality in

Sogn og Fjordane Sogn og Fjordane (; English: "Sogn and Fjordane") was, up to 1 January 2020, a county in western Norway, when it was merged to become part of Vestland county. Bordering previous counties Møre og Romsdal, Oppland, Buskerud, and Hordaland, the cou ...

, Norway. He studied at the National College of Art and Design (1942–46), then at the National Art Academy and at the Art Academy in Copenhagen (1948). Throughout his life as an artist, Eikaas showed great latitude in his choice of techniques and motifs. Few Norwegian artists in the postwar period showed so much imagination and curiosity. Eikaas' imagination was frequently paired with an irrepressible sense of humor. Eikaas debuted at the National Exhibition Fall 1946 and distinguished himself quickly as one of postwar most original and important Norwegian artists. Along with such

Gunnar S. Gundersen Gunnar S. Gundersen (25 December 1921 – 16 January 1983) or Gunnar S. (as he came to be known) was a Norway, Norwegian modernism, modernist Painting, painter. Biography Gunnar S. Gundersen was born in Førde, in the county of Sogn og Fjorda ...

and Odd Tandberg, he was part of the so-called ''Dødsgjengen'', a group of intrepid and gifted young artists who were in the forefront of non-figurative art in Norway. Eikaas was professor at the Norwegian National Academy of Fine Arts from 1970, and principal in the period 1981–83. Working within non-figurative art, he is considered one of the most important Norwegian artists in the post-

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

era. Work by Louis Eikaas is represented in the

National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, c ...

in Oslo, the

Bergen Museum of Art & Science The Bergen Museum of Art & Science is temporarily located in cyberspace while its extensive art collection valued at over one million dollars is being stored in an art warehouse in Hackensack, New Jersey, United States. The museum relocated from th ...

Henie-Onstad Art Centre The Henie Onstad Kunstsenter is an art museum located at Høvikodden in Bærum municipality in Viken county, Norway. It is situated on a headland jutting into the Oslofjord, approximately southwest of Oslo. History The artcentre was founded i ...

Statens Museum for Kunst The National Gallery of Denmark ( da, Statens Museum for Kunst, also known as "SMK", literally State Museum for Art) is the Danish national gallery, located in the centre of Copenhagen. The museum collects, registers, maintains, researches and han ...

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan a ...

, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, the

Uffizi The Uffizi Gallery (; it, Galleria degli Uffizi, italic=no, ) is a prominent art museum located adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in the Historic Centre of Florence in the region of Tuscany, Italy. One of the most important Italian museums ...

Florence, Italy Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico a ...

Personal life

Eikaas became a Knight, First Class of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav. He was married to noted Norwegian textile artist,

Synnøve Anker Aurdal Synnøve Anker Aurdal (8 December 1908 – 2 April 2000) was a Norwegian textile artist. She was born in Kristiania (now Oslo), Norway to Nils Botvid Anker (1878–1943) and Gudrun Nilssen (1875–1958). She was the sister of librarian Øy ...

(1908-2000).

Eikaas Gallery

At the beginning of the 1990s, Eikaas gave an art collection to his hometown of Jølster in Sogn og Fjordane. A separate gallery where this collection is on display, Eikaas Gallery (''Eikaasgalleriet''), was opened in 1994. The old dairy on Ålhus was purchased and converted into a modern art gallery, to receive the art collection Eikaas gave the municipality. This collection includes almost 800 works of art. In 2004, Eikaas Gallery consolidated operations with the Sogn og Fjordane Art Museum.(Sunnfjord Næringsutvikling AS)
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References

Other sources

*Eikaas, Ludvig ''Innenfor sirkelen'' (Gyldendal 1983)

External links

Eikaasgalleriet official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eikaas, Ludvig 1920 births 2010 deaths 20th-century engravers 21st-century engravers 20th-century Norwegian painters 21st-century Norwegian painters Norwegian male painters Norwegian engravers People from Jølster 20th-century Norwegian sculptors 20th-century Norwegian male artists 21st-century Norwegian male artists