PAINTER WITH A PHONECARD
The painter Knut Larsen is two months old. The first 32 years of his life he spent more or less tearing his hair.
Saturday he had an exhibition in Vaksdalsenteret - the painter who is probably the one and only artist in the entire world using a phonecard instead of a brush.
´It is the aim of all artists to be able to communicate with their audience, and is there symbolically a better way to get in touch with people than through a phonecardª, asks Knut Larsen. Two months ago he lay staring at the ceiling of a prison cell.
Wanted to decorate the cell
´It started with my wanting to have something nice on the wall - something to decorate the cell with. I had tried painting previously, but when I used an ordinary brush it did not feel right. But then I got an idea, I tried painting with a phonecard which simply lay uselessly on the table.ª
This is his first exhibition and Knut is blatantly nervous. He is standing in front of 12 of his paintings at the entrance of a shopping centre at 10 o’clock whilst people are rushing in and out. Knut Larsen knows that if they catch sight of his paintings they will stop in amazement and really admire them, because he is extremely talented.
Exposes himself
The local hobby painter and healer Jane Helle has fallen in love with the painting ´Kaos i troª. She has offered 1500 kroner for it, and Knut Larsen has been told to inform her if anyone comes up with a higher bid. In that case she was willing to pay more, because she really wants the picture.
´The reason why I particularly like that painting is that the artist exposes his entire soul in the picture. The symbolism is overwhelmingª, she says.
´There has been a lot of misery in my life, and I have tried to alleviate the pain by using drugs, because the pain at times has been intolerable. One does negative things in life to ease the pain. The phonecard came right into my hands as a kind of revelationª, the artist states. He compares painting with table tennis.
A natural talent
´When I play table tennis I have to concentrate all the time and focus upon the ball. I relax but it is strenuous all the same, because you have to concentrate and focus all your energy upon one point or a surface. However I never know where I will end when I am painting.ª
Elsa Ulevik Brølling has been painting for 45 years and has attended an Arts Academy in Denmark. She has her own exhibition with water-colour paintings and pastels diagonally opposite Knut’s exhibition in the shopping centre. She is fascinated by the balance and the colour combinations in Knut Larsen’s paintings.
´He is a natural talent. Having in mind that he has been painting these pictures in a cold cell, I am amazed by his warm and positive messageª, she says.
One of the 12 paintings illustrates a human being with a number of colours and feelings in front of prison bars. The bars are part of the steel frame and illustrate a political prisoner on Castros’s Cuba.
´If people can make something out of my pictures I will be pleased. But it started as a kind of rehabilitation of myself - a way of finding back to the good feeling I had not had for years. I was endeavouring to find something I could not find. With Yellow and Supertramp in the background I am floating along, and then I remember how nice it was to be a human beingª, he says catching sight of a tall, fair man with a yellow jacket studying the painting ´Kaos i troª with his hands on his back. Then the man says: ´I think I will have to start saving money in order to be able to buy one of these paintings!ª
It seems like all the people in Vaksdal have become aware of the fact that the artist Knut Larsen, a prisoner; is selling paintings at their shopping centre. ´What a combination of coloursª, one elderly lady exclaims. ´Blue and green seem so harmonicª, another woman states. ´I fell that prisoners who paint that well should be given another chanceª, whispers a man with an almost incomprehensible dialect.
What now Telenor..?
At 3 o’clock the shopping centre closes and a tired Knut Larsen packs up the pictures he has not sold in order to return to Ulvsnesøy where he is serving his sentence in an open institution. Happy but also confused he has had his first exhibition. The world lies open for him out there - the only thing that remains is to be recognised, but that is no easy task. Therefore Knut Larsen hopes that Telenor will supply him with phonecards free of charge for future use.
KNUT LARSEN
With a phonecard in his hand
Knut Larsen conjures up the most colourful oil-paintings. The paintings are apparently abstract, but if you take a closer look and use your imagination you will enter another world, a world in which your imagination takes command. The colours range from fiery infernos in flames to nuances of blue and green and all the other beautiful colours on earth.
The artist Knut Larsen paints oil paintings with a phonecard instead of a brush. He is an artist of our times in rapid development - probably the only person in the world who paints with a phonecard. His pictures are quite unique and special with a symphony of colours and feelings. It is an art that is genuine and honest.
This is exactly what those who see his paintings experience, something also his art colleagues have commented upon, because many artists know how difficult it is to be able to bring the feelings inside you on to the canvas.
But it is not only the paintings and the technique he uses that are special, also the circumstances that contributed to his starting a painting career. For Knut Larsen painting is no hobby, but a necessity. It all started with his sitting in a prison cell realising that he had to change his life. Painting then, became a kind of therapy to get out of his misery and all the bad things that troubled him for 15 years. He is now a free man who will live on his art - pictures that will touch your heart.
EARLIER EXHIBITIONS
KNUT LARSEN & RENATE HOPE EXHIBITIONS
Address:
Knut Larsen & Renate Hope
Dyrvedalsveien 446
5277 Bulken
Telephone:
91330055