Kåre Jonsborg

Design for tapestry "Sommerdans" ("Summer Dance") - This picture represented Norway in a series of postcards showing work of one selected artist from each European country, published by UNICEF United Nations Children's Fund just before 1980. The design is displayed in Voksenåsen Hotel, Oslo.

Tapestry, Lilletorget in the Town Hall of Oslo. Design by Kåre Jonsborg, woven by Else Halling 1952- 1953. Dimensions 2,5 m x 4,4 m.

Billedteppe, Saw Mill, 2,5 x 2,5 m in Oslo Town Hall, by Kåre Jonsborg, woven by Else Halling 1952 - 1953.

Tapestries displayed in the festive hall, Oslo Town Hall, by Kåre Jonsborg, woven by Else Halling 1952 - 1953.

Kåre Mikkelsen Jonsborg (11 January 1912, Grue, Solør – 10 July 1977, Borøy) was a Norwegian painter and textile artist.

Merits

He studied under Professor Georg Jakobsen and graduated at the Norwegian National Academy of Fine Arts, Oslo. His works span from oil, tempera, woodcutting and through to stone mosaics. He was the creator of some of the biggest monumental art decorations in Norway, tapestries in Oslo City Hall, and has been innovative in his art, is represented in the National Gallery, Oslo and has been awarded a number of distinctions, among others HM The King's Medal of Merit. He was also an invited participant at the international biennale, "Biennale internationale de tapisserie" in the Cantonal Museum of Fine Arts in Lausanne and is discussed in the work of Pierre Verlet-Michel Florisone and Adolf Hoffmeister-Francois Tabard: Le grand livre de la tapisserie (La Bibliotèque des arts, Paris).

Works

He has also created a number of altar pieces among others in Svalbard church, designs for monumental tapestries in Oslo City Hall (woven by Else Halling). He also created a vast production of figurative paintings and tapestry designs. For many years he had a fruitful partnership with Else Halling, aiming to find a useful range of plant dyes for dying wool from spelsau. The cooperation resulted in significant achievements.

Importance

The works of the artists Sigurd Winge, Else Hagen, Kåre Jonsborg and others mark a new era in Norwegian room art.

In his art he was dedicated to geometrical theories of how to build and compose pictures, of the art and colour theories of Piero della Francesca, Paul Cézanne, Pablo Picasso og Eugène Delacroix. All his life he studied the old masters and travelled in Europe and collected a vast documentation of the masters' composition technics.

He also tutored at the Norwegian National Academy of Craft and Art Industry in Oslo.

Sources

• Leif Østby: "Norges kunsthistorie"
• Øystein Parmann: "Norsk Billedvev"
• Piere Verlet-Michel Florisone, Adolf Hoffmeister_Francois Tabard: Le grand livre de la tapisserie (La Bibliothèque des arts, Paris)