Jakob Weidemann

Jakob Weidemann (14 June 1923 – 19 December 2001) was a Norwegian artist. Jakob Weidemann is regarded as one of Norway’s more important artists of post-war Modernism.

Weidemann was born out of wedlock and spent the first years of childhood with his mother's parents in Steinkjer. His mother married 1930 with life insurance inspector and later art dealer Einar Johansen (1907–82). Weidemann moved to Oslo at age 11 to live with his mother. He was educated at the Bergen Art School (Bergen Kunsthåndverkskole) (1939), Ole B. Eide's art school in Bergen (1940–41) and the Norwegian National Academy of Fine Arts in Oslo (1941). Jacob Weidemann's first exhibition at (Blomqvists kunsthandel) in Oslo during 1946 was his breakthrough.

Weidemann is considered one of the more influential artists within Norwegian modernism in the 1950s. He pioneered abstract painting in Norway in the decades following the Second world war. Weidemanns work Storfuglen letter (1959) was elected as one of the twelve most important Norwegian artworks by Morgenbladet.

Weidemann joined the Norwegian resistance forces during the Occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany, was arrested, but escaped to Sweden. Here he was the victim of an accident in which an explosive charge blew up in such a way that he was blinded. He regained his sight, but then only in the left eye. The experience of being blind may have been decisive for the direction his art was later to take – towards an explosion of color and light.

Abstract, expressionistic paintings with nature as inspiration is characteristic for Weidemann. After some experimentation with different styles in the 1940s and 1950, Weidemann finally settled in what can be called expressive, lyrically abstract art with nature as inspiration and basis. Several of his late works are Inntrykk fra naturen (Impressions from Nature), Interiør (Interior), Veien to Jerusalem (The road to Jerusalem), Storfuglen letter (The great bird lifts off), Tåke i Getsemane (Fog in Getsemane) and Hommage à El Greco.

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