Here is a shout-out to tapestry weaver friends — especially those from Norway. My friend purchased this tapestry, woven after an image by Erik Harry Johannessen (1902-1980).
The image is busy and a bit impenetrable, but becomes more intriguing each time I try to parse it out. The large figure on the left has arms up and arms down, and a prominent heart. The figure on the right has two sets of breasts and looks a bit angry. What is that group of figures in the bottom left-hand corner? Ancestors? What is the round thing above those figures, dangling from a string? I would love to know more about Johannessen’s thoughts while painting this.
The initials of the weaver are also woven in. Who might this be? Is it DE? Or ED? Is the year 1965?It would be wonderful to learn more about the background of the tapestry. Why was this image chosen to be woven? In my initial research, I don’t see that other of his paintings were reproduced in tapestry. Why this one? Was it owned privately or commissioned for a public space? The weaving is beautifully executed.
The painter and graphic artist Erik Harry Johannessen (1902-1980) was born to a single mother in Sweden, but moved to Norway two years later. He attended a technical school in 1921-22, and then worked at sea before attending the Statens Håndverks- og Kunstindustriskole [National Academy of Craft and Art Industry] in 1924-25. At the beginning of his career he worked as a decorator, including as a window decorator for the Freia chocolate company. In the 1930s he belonged to a small group of Norwegian surrealists. He was strongly influenced by the Norwegian artist Kai Fjell. He worked in both woodcuts and oil painting. In the 1950s and 60s he was recognized for his decorative folk scenes and landscapes, which took on aspects of Picasso’s cubist style.
His work varied widely. An article in Urd magazine (Vol, 60, No. 6, 1956) stated, “He is somewhat hard to place, probably because he was always changing. We venture a guess. To reach a level and hold yourself there in your own consciousness and that of the public, is a foreign concept to Johannessen. He steadily follows new paths, and pops up at the most unexpected times and places, always new…”
Here is a woodcut by Johannessen, dated 1950-1958, around the same time as the painting/tapestry. The woodcut was sold by the Blomqvist Auction House in the summer of 2024.
Who knows? Perhaps this is an image of the weaver who executed the tapestry — although this weaver is not sitting at a tapestry loom.
Let me now if you have any clues about this Johannessen tapestry or the weaver.
For more on Johannessen, see this entry in the Norwegian Biographical Encyclopedia: https://nbl.snl.no/Erik_Harry_Johannessen