Welcome to Art Nordic Spotlight – A series where we talk to some of the talents who are exhibiting their art at Art Nordic. In this episode, we’re meeting the prizewinning artist Anna Præcius Lunde. Anna Præcius Lunde is an experienced exhibitor, and prize-winner and is figuring in the book 101 artists that is highlighting the best Danish art. Get to know her better here.
Anna Lunde’s art is provocative. One does not need to look at one of her pieces for long before the emotions are emerging. Anna Lunde choose art as there is no “right”. She’s drawn towards the immediacy and simplicity that the open canvas offers.
“I’m driven by a deep urge to create. It is amazing that you can create a wild and bizarre setup via the art that you wouldn’t really want to exist in the real world which can express exactly what it must on the canvas.” she explains, “to be able to create something that the viewer can “turn and twist” in their heads, and relate to their lives is giving me a great joy.”
The same is true when others have new interpretations of her work that are diverging from her own interpretations. That’s actually one of the reasons why she loves to show her works to an audience.
“I’m always listening to music when I’m creating. Sometimes it is accompanied by a good glass of whiskey.” Listen to Anna Lunde’s favorites here.
The environment as co-creator of the artworks
When it comes to the creative process Anna Lunde doesn’t want to have a full overview of the project from the start. That’s something that shows itself down the road. Randomness is a co-creator of the artwork. Unintended shadows that could look like something else can direct the work down another path that she can get a spontaneous urge to follow. That’s adding another layer of authenticity to the artwork.
“If I knew how everything was supposed to look before I started I would lose the spark and feel more like an automatized producer in the creative process,” she says. “It is instead mood, atmosphere, and time of the day that is reflected in the specific details.”
A stylistic turning point
At the beginning of Anna Lunde’s art career, she was painting abstract paintings and enjoyed the aggression and tempo that the style was characterized by. At that time she didn’t have the calmness and desire to go into depths with the smallest details.
Destiny would that she went to an art course in London where she was “forced” to work for a long time on the same painting which was outside her comfort zone. “My art mentor pointed out that we shouldn’t focus entirely on the colors and lines that we saw but rather look at the model and find out what was motivating us to paint exactly this portrait – all while sensing the atmosphere.”
That resulted in an abrupt change to Anna Lunde’s style.
“The painting of the flaming red-haired woman with peach-colored skin was as the days went by transformed into an old bald woman with cold skin tones. The result of my art mentor’s essential advice. Right there I discovered my way of expression”
Inspiration from existential philosophy
Anna Lunde was deeply fascinated by what it was possible to create with figurative art. Even though the tempo is entirely different the wildness is easy to spot in her artworks. To Anna Lunde, it is a very taxing but giving process where she is continuing night and day until shadows and colors are just as she wants them.
“I’m definitely working against the painting in the process,” says Anna Lunde “To be in the flow of an atmosphere I’m often choosing different light coloring in the atelier, and even though I know that eg. green lighting can set my color mixing entirely off I’m continuing. The following day during the daylight I can use some of the uncommon color mixings as others are painted over.”
Apart from immersing herself in different atmospheres, Anna Lunde is inspired by philosophical perspectives and ideas, especially existentialism.
“Friedrich Nietzsche expressed that one needs chaos within to give birth to a dancing star and Albert Camus reflected that there is no sun without shadow and that it is detrimental to know the night. It is fascinating existential observations that leave traces in my artworks.”
Anna Lunde sees beauty in the cycle of the living that is showing itself in greatness and decline in her artworks. She’s drawn toward wrinkles, shapes, wounds, hair loss, and everything that gives a human its character. The errorless human is to Anna Lunde as interesting as the bottom of a paint bucket.
“Underplayed humor is an important element in my artworks. It can be small details, color mixings, or something else.”
Melancholia and anthropomorphism
Melancholia is also an atmosphere that has an important role for Anna Lunde and it is often showing itself as simplicity and calmness – Either in color or motif.
“The beauty of the melancholic atmosphere is that it is forcing the viewer out of their often comfortable thoughts and are directing their thoughts toward a more existential stream of thoughts of what really matters in life. Notice that it is when one is most under pressure by the circumstances of life that they find the willpower to take make the necessary changes towards a better life.”
Anna is also finding her inspiration in anthropomorphism, a way of thought where animals are attributed human features and positions. Or the opposite – Animalism is attributed to humans. To Anna Lunde, it is exciting to explore the differences and similarities between humans and animals. That way she can make the viewer reflect upon hierarchies and power structures.
In order to experience Anna Lunde’s art to its fullest one must know that she is searching for the passionate, reflected, and original in the human. She is making it a prime virtue of hers to be un-normative.
“I am as fascinated by authenticity and the many contrasts of life as I am un-fascinated by small talk and sunlight in the atelier.”
We are really excited that we can present Anna Præcius Lunde at Art Nordic 2022. It will be an exhibition that one with no doubt can have big expectations for so come by and challenge your comfort zone:
“I’m creating completely new works that are currently in progress. It will be an entirely new setup, but with the same brush strokes. It will be crazy and intense. I’m excited as a mad artist and can’t way to show it to you.” she says before we finish our talk.
If you are interested in learning more about Anna’s art you can find her artist profile below.
