Image: Kunstsilo, Versailles
Kunstsilo in Kristiansand, Norway, will launch its new lecture series ‘Klok på Kunsten’ with a presentation devoted to the artist Kjartan Slettemark. The event, titled ‘Klok på Kunsten: foredrag om kunstneren Kjartan Slettemark’, will take place on 27 August in Sjølystsalen at Kunstsilo. Stina Högkvist, director of Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum and former director of the collection department at Norway’s National Museum, will introduce Slettemark’s life and work.
According to Kunstsilo, the series is intended to offer closer study of artists represented in its collections, with attention to the artworks, stories and ideas that shaped their practices. The museum says no prior knowledge of art is required. The first lecture will examine Slettemark’s combination of material experimentation, performance, politics and humour, and will provide an opportunity for audiences to see several of his works in the museum’s current collection exhibition.
Kjartan Slettemark (1932–2008) moved to Stockholm in 1959, according to the museum’s biographical account, after experiencing what he regarded as a restrictive Norwegian art scene. From the early 1960s, he combined experimental materials and performance with political commentary and humour. His works frequently responded directly to events in society, while his public identity and everyday life also became part of an extended artistic practice.
Slettemark is represented in the Tangen Collection by more than 80 works, including paintings, drawings, prints, collages and material-based pictures from the 1960s and 1970s. The holdings include several versions from the collage series ‘Nixon Visions’, made in the early 1970s. The museum describes Slettemark as an artist who continued to challenge established expectations until his death in 2008.
The lecture is linked to ‘Opprør og optimisme. Fortellinger fra Tangen-samlingen’, on view at Kunstsilo from 30 April 2026 through 14 February 2027. The exhibition brings together approximately 100 works from the Tangen Collection and considers how Nordic artists after the Second World War responded to social change, new technologies, new ideas and experimental artistic methods. Slettemark’s works occupy an entire wall in the exhibition on the fourth floor.
‘Opprør og optimisme’ forms part of a larger collaboration between Kunstsilo and art historian and external curator Steinar Gjessing. The exhibition also presents works recently acquired from the Canica Art Collection, which the museum says has expanded the Tangen Collection with key works by Nordic artists of the 20th century. The 27 August lecture is scheduled as a one-hour event, with doors opening at 18:45 according to Kunstsilo’s ticket information.
