Queen Sonja presenting the International Print Award to Canadian Emma Nishimura. (Photo: Nina Rangøy / NTB scanpix)
Kari Rogstad enjoyed Rita de Ruysscher’s talk on “Painting the North” and shares with us some information about Canadian art and Norway, starting with the 2012-13 “Painting Canada” Exhibition in Oslo. This was the largest exhibition of Canadian art in history to travel to Europe and featured 122 famous landscape paintings.
Painting Canada: Thom Thomson and the Group of Seven: Exhibition in Oslo January 26, 2012 - May 13, 2013
Queen Sonja of Norway opened the Exhibition in Oslo. Charlie Hill, curator of Canadian Art at the National Gallery of Canada, travelled with the Exhibition to Oslo.
At the time, I was a volunteer at the National Gallery’s Looking at Pictures program and I met with Charlie Hill on a different matter and, being Norwegian, I asked him about the Exhibition in Oslo. He was very impressed with Queen Sonja’s thorough knowledge of the Group of Seven. The Queen told Mr. Hill that she herself likes photography and taking pictures of nature. The Queen said she enjoyed seeing how these artists had been able to get the lights and perspectives exhibited so fantastically well in their paintings.
The Queen Sonja International Print Award is handed out every second year to a young emerging graphic artist to promote contemporary print making today. Queen Sonja has a degree in Art History and has been a practising visual artist for many years.
Canadian Artist Emma Nishimura, Toronto, was awarded the Queen Sonja International Print Award in 2018 and it was presented to her by Queen Sonja at the Royal Academy of Arts in London in November, 2018.
Charles Hill retired from the National Gallery in 2014 after 47 years, the final 35 of which were as curator of Canadian art. Mr. Hill was happy to learn that Norway will soon be getting a new Museum of Art. The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design in Oslo closed temporarily in early 2019 and will open again when the new National Museum opens in 2020.