Northern Lights: A Celebration of Northern Landscapes

Northern Lights features more than seventy landscape paintings by artists from the Nordic region and Canada created between 1880 and 1930, among them masterworks by Edvard Munch and Hilma af Klint. The boreal forest—a global belt of evergreen forests that hugs the Arctic Circle—was a shared source of inspiration for a new kind of modernist painting that emerged across national and geographic boundaries.

The boreal region’s seemingly boundless expanses of forest, the radiant light of endless summer days, the long winter nights, and natural phenomena such as the aurora borealis gave rise to a specific form of modern painting whose appeal and fascination endures to this day. In the works on view, the boreal forest, one of Earth’s largest primeval forests, takes on the quality of a spiritual landscape.

“Northern Lights gathers together artworks that cross national boundaries in order to demonstrate the profound creative impacts of a remarkable environmental context,” said Helga Christoffersen, Curator-at-Large and Curator, AKG Nordic Art & Culture Initiative. “It has been an honor to work with the Fondation Beyeler to realize this landmark exhibition, as it is evidence of the power of transnational collaboration.”

Northern Lights traces the development of landscape painting in modern art through selected works by Helmi Biese (Finnish, 1867–1933), Anna Boberg (Swedish, 1864–1935), Emily Carr (Canadian, British Columbia, 1871–1945), Prince Eugen (Swedish, 1865–1947), Gustaf Fjæstad (Swedish, 1868–1948), Akseli Gallen-Kallela (Finnish, born in Grand Duchy of Finland, then part of the Russian Empire, 1865–1931), Lawren Harris (Canadian, Ontario, 1885–1970), Hilma af Klint (Swedish, 1862–1944), J. E. H. MacDonald (born in Durham, England, emigrated to Canada, 1873–1932), Edvard Munch (Norwegian, 1863–1944), Harald Sohlberg (Norwegian, 1869–1935), and Tom Thomson (Canadian, Ontario, 1877–1917), among many others.

The Buffalo AKG Art Museum’s longstanding commitment to art from the Nordic region dates back to the first exhibition of modernism from the region, the Exhibition of Contemporary Scandinavian Art (1913), a landmark exhibition presented at the Albright Art Gallery (a previous name of the Buffalo AKG) through the patronage of the kings of Sweden, Denmark, and Norway. A revolutionary group of Canadian modernists traveled to Buffalo to see the exhibition, and it was a catalytic experience. After the exhibition, they were inspired to join as a movement, which came to be called Group of Seven. Several of these painters are included in Northern Lights. The presentation of Northern Lights at the Buffalo AKG will feature archival materials from this historic exhibition in 1913.

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Northern Lights is organized by the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Buffalo, New York, and the Fondation Beyeler, Richen/Basel. This exhibition is made possible by leadership support from the Northern Lights International Exhibition Committee, with special thanks to NorthCape Wealth Management, Camilla & John Lindfors, and Christine Standish & Christopher Wilk.

The Nordic Art and Culture Initiative is made possible by the leadership support of the Nordic Founding Patrons group.

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About the Nordic Art & Culture Initiative
The Buffalo AKG Nordic Art and Culture Initiative is a unique platform in North America for art of the Nordic Region in a broad sense, encompassing artists whose practices are tied to a landmass that includes Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and the Åland Islands. The Initiative is dedicated to organizing programs and exhibitions at the Buffalo AKG and in the Buffalo community with artists and cultural producers across disciplines who are substantively associated with the Nordic region.

In growing its world-renowned collection of modern and contemporary art since the museum’s founding in 1862, the Buffalo AKG has acquired works by pioneering artists who are professionally or personally associated with the Nordic region. In recent years these have included, for example, Eija-Liisa Ahtila, Pia Arke, Miriam Bäckström, Ragna Bley, Nathalie Djurberg & Hans Berg, Ida Ekblad, Olafur Eliasson, Paul Fägerskjöld, Per Kirkeby, Santiago Mostyn, Trina Lise Nedreaas, Ragna Róbertsdóttir, Torbjørn Rødland, Marianna Uutinen, Danh Võ, and Ebbe Stub Wittrup.

Learn more about the Nordic Art and Culture Initiative here.

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About the Buffalo AKG Art Museum 
Founded in 1862, the Buffalo AKG Art Museum is the sixth-oldest public art institution in the United States. For more than 160 years, the Buffalo AKG has collected, conserved, and exhibited the art of its time, often working directly with living artists. This tradition has given rise to one of the world’s most extraordinary collections of modern and contemporary art.

In June 2023, following the completion of the most significant campus development and expansion project in its history, the Buffalo AKG opened anew to the public. The project was funded by a $230 million capital campaign, the largest such campaign for a cultural institution in the history of Western New York, including $195 million raised for construction and $35 million in additional operating endowment funds.