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Indepth Arts News:
"Jens Carstensen: A Dane in Dane County"
2002-01-23 until 2002-03-10
Charles Allis Art Museum
Milwaukee, WI,
USA United States of America
The exhibition
will include 60 oils, watercolors, and pastels of Wisconsin and Upper
Peninsula landscapes that inspire this son of Denmark to create his works of
tranquil and luminous beauty, as well as reflections of the nude. The
exhibition is part of the citywide International Arts Festival celebrating
Scandinavian Heritage.
A recently retired professor from the University of Wisconsin-Madison School
of Pharmacy, Jens Carstensen emigrated from Denmark to Wisconsin in 1950.
While on a Parisian sabbatical in 1977, Carstensen began his second career
as a painter, beginning with ink drawings, gouache and watercolor. His
mentor, Lake Geneva artist Elton Krafft, influenced his use of color in oil
and acrylic and endorsed his induction into the Milwaukee Sketch Club. He
began site sketching his favorite locations near Deerfield, Richland Center,
Devil‚s Lake, Door County and Lake Superior. There's nothing like the
light and atmosphere of the site itself to instill life into painting, said
Carstensen. His landscapes are fond recollections of Wisconsin‚s familiar
forested areas and roadside views of the rolling countryside, often with a
familiar farmstead tucked among the hills.
During the winter Carstensen creates rapid pencil sketches then paints in
his studio, rather than battling the harsher elements. He admits that
studio paintings are canned representations, but adroitly recollects
compositional elements and colors. Using brushes no larger than a half-inch
flat and mixing no more than two colors, Carstensen contemplates his work in
two dimensions. He maintains a Florida studio, where he also paints from
sketches, many beach scenes depicting men and women complete with bellies
and fat legs, musing, There is more beauty in the body as it is than when
it is idealized.
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