ArtistNorwegianb.1897–d.1954
Fredrik Stabel
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For forty years, Dagbladet readers woke to a drawing by Fredrik Stabel: a small figure with an oversized head, caught mid-blunder in the society he had invented - Norsk Dusteforbund, the Norwegian Association of Dimwits. The column ran daily from 1950 to 1990, accumulating a cast of recurring characters whose folly was never cruel, always precise. Darwin P. Erlandsen served as president. Lille-Maud Vonlausbråten ran the deduction bureau. Together they staged, day after day, a catalogue of human self-importance and miscommunication that Stabel observed with what his contemporaries called unparalleled empathy.
Stabel was born on 4 January 1914 in Kristiania (now Oslo). His early adult life was genuinely peripatetic: he worked as a ship greaser on the M/S Stavangerfjord, a prompter at the National Theatre, a bookkeeper, and twice as a miner on Svalbard with the Store Norske Coal Company. He attended Statens handverks- og kunstindustriskole from 1940 to 1945. His entry into illustration was almost accidental - in April 1940, days after the German invasion of Norway, an acquaintance submitted one of his sketches to Dagbladet without telling him. It was published immediately and the editor asked for more.
During the occupation Stabel continued drawing for the humor magazines Tyrihans, Humoristen, and Karikaturen despite receiving threats from the NS. After the war he published his first novel, the absurdist 'Keiser Nimbus og lille Karolius Kattetegner' (1946), before Dusteforbundet took over his life in 1950. He married in 1953, lived for periods in Spain and Seljord, and settled permanently in Drobak in 1963, where he remained until his death.
The second major chapter of his career began in 1976, when he attended a printmaking seminar in Son led by Finn and Dagny Hald and learned to etch. One of the pieces produced at that seminar was accepted by Statens Hostutstilling the same year - the juried national autumn exhibition, a significant threshold for any Norwegian visual artist. Stabel set up a press at home and from 1983 began hand-coloring his etchings. The first exhibition of these colored prints was held at Gallery Tanum in 1984. Over the years he produced 88 motifs from the Dusteforbund universe in graphic form, and in 1985 was recognized as one of 'Nordens morsomste' - the North's funniest - at the region's first humor biennial.
The Nasjonalmuseet holds a significant body of his work, including caricatures, prints, and hand-colored etchings, with a large acquisition in 2023 featured in the exhibition 'Veldig ulike tendenser' in 2024. In 1999, the Avistegnernes Hus (House of Newspaper Cartoonists) in Drobak opened a permanent dedicated section to Stabel and his work. He died on 2 July 2001.
At auction on Auctionist, Stabel's prints circulate almost exclusively through Norwegian houses, primarily Nyborgs Auksjoner and Grev Wedels Plass Auksjoner. Of the 13 recorded lots, prices for his hand-colored etchings have reached 9,000 NOK, with works in the 3,000-4,800 NOK range appearing regularly. The titles recorded - 'Den som ikke er i stand', 'Fornuften er en ensom ting', 'Landskap med narcissist' - carry the same deadpan wit as the columns that made him famous.