Malerier

In the 1970s and early 1980s, Johan Knoff’s paintings focused on the big city and often the lonely, alienated individual within the urban crowd. After going through a ten-year period of abstraction, his visual language has once again become more concrete and descriptive, though now with greater emphasis on painting itself than in the early 1980s. Colour and texture have become more important. The abstract period was necessary to rediscover the fundamental elements of painting, which is visible on the pictorial surface.

The exhibition at Oslo Kunstforening consists of two sections, each with its own thematic focus. In one, the motifs are drawn from reality, seen and experienced by the artist during his many travels. His focus has now shifted toward environments closer to home and interpersonal relationships. A bar in Paris, a bazaar in the East, or quite simply a landscape he has encountered.

The other section centers on the American Civil War 1861–65, a subject that has appeared in the artist’s work since the 1970s. Contemporary reports and visual representations from the time are used as material in these often-large-scale works.

Text translated by Oslo Kunstforening in 2025.