Jørleif Uthaug

His formal training came during the war years and their aftermath. He studied at Statens Håndverks- og Kunstindustriskole and at the unofficial academy under Per Krohg and Axel Revold from 1941 to 1943, then continued at Statens kunstakademi under Jean Heiberg from 1945 to 1947. He debuted as a painter in 1948 at Trondhjems Kunstforening and held his first solo exhibition at Galleri Per in Oslo the following year, a venue located in the ground floor of Kunstnernes Hus.

Uthaug worked in distinct phases throughout his career, following a trajectory influenced by French modernism, particularly the legacies of Braque and Picasso. His figurative paintings of the 1950s gave way to a decisive break in the 1960s, when he abandoned recognizable forms entirely and pursued abstract construction in both paint and metal. He took courses in metallurgy and welding at the State Institute of Technology from 1960 to 1961, and this technical grounding enabled an ambitious programme of monumental public works. His largest mural, 'People on a beach', measures 10 by 3 metres and occupies the principal wall of the chamber of representatives in Tromsø's County Hall. Other commissions included the 7-metre stainless steel sculptural front in a towering arch, 'Amphitrite, the wave and the sea birds' in Porsgrunn (a 4-metre stainless steel figure of the sea goddess flanked by birds), and decorative work for SAS. In his later years he returned to figurative painting and mastered watercolour, exhibiting landscape watercolours across Norway.

Uthaug's graphic work attracted sustained international recognition. After his death, four of his lithographs - 'Eve', 'Fishing fleet', 'The newspaper boy' and 'Two people' - were acquired by the British Museum following their inclusion in the Modern Scandinavian Prints exhibition in 1997. His work is also held in the Nasjonalmuseet in Oslo. On the occasion of his centenary in 2011, three exhibitions opened simultaneously: 'The artist behind the wall of Tromsø' at Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum, 'Jørleif Uthaug, a classic modernist' at Ørland Cultural Centre, and a survey of sculpture, painting, drawing and graphics at Galleri KS Tønsberg.

In the Nordic auction market, Uthaug's work appears most frequently at Grev Wedels Plass Auksjoner in Oslo, which has handled the large majority of the 12 works recorded at auction. Top results include 'Morning Bath' at 62,000 NOK and 'Seabirds' at 52,000 NOK, with figural subjects from his 1950s period - such as 'Reclining Figure 1956' and 'Figurer i bylandskap 1947' - also among the works that have come to market.