Meander

Meander formed, alongside other important works in the Firestorm Foundation Collection; like Imago (2024, oil on canvas, 205 x 205 cm) and Händelsehorisont / Event Horizon (2024, oil on canvas 205 x 205 cm), part of Martina Müntzing’s debut solo exhibition at CHART Art Fair in Copenhagen, 2024. In conjunction with the fair CFHILL gave the following interesting description of Meander:

Even though contemporary, Martina Müntzing’s art has strong ties to earlier champions of the discipline. Her closest colleagues thus bear names such as Carl Larsson, Richard Bergh and Bruno Liljefors, all Swedish artists active at the turn of the last century and associated with a painterly golden age that took place during a socially and politically turbulent era. All the traditional relationships were put to the test: between the sexes, between the citizen and the state, between man and nature - yes, the very meaning of humanity, and its place on earth, was questioned and challenged. In the rear-view mirror, however, the works of these artists appear to radiate with a nostalgic, peaceful shimmer. Nothing could be more false, and in her meticulous studies of family members and animals, Martina Müntzing sees through the deceitful and contrived harmony. The softest of cheeks, the tenderest of embraces and thestrongest of bonds always carry with them the seed of separation, brutality and always, inevitably -the end. [...] Painting nature clad in snow was a recurring theme for several of the National Romantic painters. It is also a recurrent theme in one of Müntzing’s series from the early 2020s, a number of canvases that were carried out in connection with the untimely death of the artist’s husband (artist Lars Arrhenius). But instead of snow-clad and heavy tree branches in untouched land, Müntzing’s paintings are populated by snowmen, created jointly by the family. At CHART, Müntzing also shows another recurring motif, also with a half wink at Bruno Liljefors, referencing his Darwinian depictions of animals, where life is about eating or being eaten. The fox, a mammal at the top of the food chain, is often depicted as one of the lions of the Nordic forest. In the frieze-like painting with at least twelve foxes, the animals appear to be fighting a Parthenian battle. For those who are familiar with her many works depicting her family members, and especially the children, it is difficult not to read the painting as a portrait of a child’s path towards socialization and maturity.

The seemingly cryptic title of the work, Meander, is related to the decorative ornamentation,indistinctly drawn in pencil, along the bottom of the canvas. A meander, or meandros (Greek: Μαίανδρος), is a decorative border constructed from a continuous line, shaped into a repeated motif. Among some Italians, these patterns are known as ‘Greek Lines’. Such a design may also be called the Greek fret or Greek key design, although these terms are modern designations; this decorative motif appears thousands of years before that culture, thousands of miles away from Greece, and among cultures that are continents away from it. Usually the term is used for motifs with straight lines and right angles and the many versions with rounded shapes are called running scrolls or, following the etymological origin of the term, may be identified as water wave motifs.

On one hand, the name ‘meander’ recalls the twisting and turning path of the Meander River in Asia Minor (present day Turkey) that is typical of river pathways. On another hand, as Karl Kerenyi (1897 – 1973, Hungarian scholar in classical philology and one of the founders of modern studies of Greek mythology) pointed out, ‘the meander is the figure of a labyrinth in linear form’.

Meanders are common decorative elements in Greek and Roman art. In ancient Greece they appear in many architectural friezes, and in bands on the pottery of ancient Greece from the Geometric period onward. The design is common to the present-day in classicizing architecture, and is adopted frequently as a decorative motif for borders for many modern printed materials. One famous example is to be found in the textiles, and various objects, produced by celebrated designer Gianni Versace (1946 - 1997).

Provenance

CFHILL, CHART, Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, 29 August – 1 September 2024.

Firestorm Foundation (acquired at the above).

Exhibitions

Hedvig Eleonora Church, Stockholm, Tillblivelser, 28 November 2024 – 12 January 2025.

Copyright Firestorm Foundation