ISHOJ, DENMARK.- The Arken Museum of Modern Art presents Johannes Larsen & Bruno Liljefors - Life in Nature, on view through September 11, 2005. The exhibition spotlights the two painters' different interpretations of the local nature and its fauna. Their nature painting originated from a time when the technological and scientific development substantially was changing man's relationship with nature. ARKEN’s exhibition presents a wide selection of works by the two artists from the period 1884-1961.

Back to nature - At a time when modern technology was radically transforming European city culture, Johannes Larsen and Bruno Liljefors went into the wilds. Dedicated hunters, the two painters shared the prevalent celebration of health and the primeval. The artists were leaving the cities behind, founding artist colonies in remote provincial regions in order to portray all that which was yet untouched by modern society.

Larsen's and Liljefors' art is borne by a comprehensive factual knowledge of the nature they depict and they both worked in close association with the scientific scene. By illustrating the interplay between animal and environment, the two painters depict nature as a cohesive whole, an autonomous system existing separately from the mores and morals of culture.

A breath of plein air - The artists of the time, Liljefors and Larsen included, were abandoning the mythological subjects of the art academies. They grabbed their easels and left the dark of the studios, wishing to paint under open skies, straight from nature. The ideal was imported from France where the naturalist and Impressionist currents of the day emphasised a portrayal of reality as seen with the artist's own two eyes. The subject matter was found in the immediate, humble surroundings, and in Liljefors and Larsen the local nature takes centre stage.