To speak from the heart – art exhibition by Örjan Noring

Örjan Noring (1920–2008) from Jämtland is best known for his melancholic depictions of rural elderly populations, abandoned landscapes, and dramatic nature scenes. His works often express a blend of tenderness, humor, and melancholy, as well as a protest against urbanization and the pressures of efficiency.

Noring began his career early as a child with drawing and painting before moving to Stockholm to study art. After attempting a career as a commercial artist, he returned to his hometown, Hackås in Jämtland. From the 1950s, he focused more on his artistic endeavors and became truly recognized as an artist in the 1960s.

Noring was deeply involved in the centralization that took place in Sweden at the beginning of the 1970s when the inland areas of northern Sweden lost a large part of their younger population, the cultural landscape became overgrown, and abandoned farms increased in number.

With humor, tenderness, and melancholy, he painted the everyday life of the aging population, the empty farms where nature took over, and the uncomprehending glances of urban tourists. His portrayals of people were often done in a heartfelt, somewhat burlesque, naive style.

Noring's strong feelings for nature, seasonal changes, and weather shifts were expressed in partly romantic paintings and partly in dramatic expressiveness. The mountainous regions particularly ignited Noring's passion, resulting in colorful and wild interpretations, sometimes with completely unmixed colors.

Noring created several paintings of Røros in the 1960s. In many of these paintings, we find a very unusual and deep color scale. The early industrial landscape with slag heaps and mine shafts is painted with a dark palette that creates a mystical yet harmonious aesthetic. The dullness of the slag is brought to life in an almost magical way.