The Tor Juul contemporary art collection
It is with great excitement that we present this year’s summer exhibition. This is a rare chance to experience the best of Norwegian contemporary art, here in Ålesund. Part of the exhibition has been shown once before, in The Stenersen Museum, Oslo, in 2007. We are proud to announce that here at Kube, it has been expanded to the total of 171 works by 51 artists.
Tor Juul has been passionately interested in art since he was a teenager. His love for art has led him to the great museums of Europe and America. Early Renaissance, Flemish High Renaissance and the Golden Age of Norwegian art touched him deeply. The desire to envelope himself in art at home, was born.
As a student, Tor would collect art by buying from young and unestablished artists. Since buying his first pieces in the eighties, his collection now numbers 350.
The goal of the collector has always been to find works of art that catches the spirit of the contemporary. To do this, one needs the right knowledge and an eye for talent.
Tor Juul is a keen follower of Norway’s up-and-coming artists, visiting graduation exhibitions and small galleries around the country. The private collector has the advantage of acting on impulse. His aim is to capture talented artists as early as possible, taking chances where the big galleries and museums tend to hesitate.
Containing paintings, photographs, video and drawings, this exhibition reaches out to a wide ranging audience, with expressionism and modern abstract as a repetitive theme. Bjarne Melgaard, the young Marius Martinussen, Sverre Wyller, Vanessa Baird, Katrine Giæver and Harald Fenn are just a few of the artists included in the collection. One of Tor Juul’s first acquisitions was by the then young Per Barclay, now a well established and respected artist. This is a classic example of Tor Juul’s ability to find exciting young talent.
Ålesund artist Marianne Heske is the face of the exhibition with the pieces “My home town” and “Mountain of the mind”, both from 2010.
