Tal R & Mamma Andersson – About Hill

Their unique sense of colour and composition make the Danish/Israeli artist Tal R (b. 1967) and the Swedish artist Mamma Andersson (b. 1962) two of the most outstanding painters in the Nordic region. Both helped pave the way for the new painting of the 21st century and both have gained international recognition for their work.

Both artists have arrived at a powerful artistic expression. Each in their own way tackles the field of tension between the familiar and the strange. In contrast to the works of Tal R, which are known for their expressiveness and bright colours, those of Mamma Andersson are subdued, featuring a unique sense of the nuances and potential of black as a colour. However, despite the apparent differences in the style of the two artists, they both draw inspiration from the great masters of art history. It is this common inspiration that forms the basis for Tal R & Mamma Andersson – About Hill.

The exhibition is rooted in their shared fascination with the iconic Swedish artist Carl Fredrik Hill (1849-1911) and his so called ‘illness-drawings’. At the age of 28, after a number of years as a landscape painter in France, Hill was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Cared for by his mother and sister in his childhood home in Lund, he created an overwhelming number of drawings, charged with anxiety and eroticism, and featuring a myriad of animals, ancient sculptures, and people. Accordingly, while the drawings are a picture of Hill’s external setting, they are above all an expression of his innermost thoughts and internal chaos.

For this exhibition, Tal R and Mamma Andersson have taken Hill’s highly idiosyncratic pictorial world and transformed it with their own, inimitable style. Distorted bodies float around on pebbly beaches and theatre stages, introverted figures and masks become an image of human suffering, nature becomes intense, perilous and alive, and darkness creeps into the works. In addition to the brand-new paintings and works on paper by Tal R and Mamma Andersson, the exhibition features several Hill’s illness drawings from Malmö Konstmuseum’s collection, all carefully selected by the two artists.

The exhibition is a collaboration between Malmö Art Museum, Kunsten Museum of Modern Art and Museum MORE in Gorssel, the Netherlands. The exhibition at Malmö Art Museum has been developed with support of Region Skåne.