The sea has fascinated artists time and again: it is considered to be one of the most difficult subjects to depict. And indeed, to convincingly visualise waves and spray, raging water masses in a storm and calm surfaces in a lull is not just a challenge in painting.
The sea demands a physical and psychological engagement with an elemental force that is sometimes perceived as the greatest blessing and sometimes as life-threatening. On account of its almost infinite vastness and depth it also serves as a projection surface; countless myths, secrets, and stories are associated with it.
The exhibition provides an overview of the history of the seascape in Norwegian, Danish, German and Dutch painting from the early nineteenth century to the present. Of course, the artists who paint seascapes do not focus exclusively on the water, but also on the ports, the ships, the fishermen, and the coastal dwellers, the holidaymakers and wayfarers.
Among the treasures in the exhibition, which was conceived on the basis of the Collection of West Coast Art, are paintings by Johan Christian Dahl, Louis Gurlitt, Max Liebermann, and Max Beckmann; added to these are graphic works by, among others, Emil Nolde and Otto Heinrich Engel. Contemporary artists include Yinka Shonibare and Volker Tiemann.
