The Shape of Freedom: The Happening Talks & Music

Freedom! Action! Now! An abstract expressionist happening.
Lee Krasner, Through Blue, 1963. Oil on canvas
Festsal

Doors open: 1830

An extended Saturday-night ‘happening’, with a chance to go deeper into MUNCH’s exhibition The Shape of Freedom of abstract expressionist painting. This event will fill the Festsal with a stimulating mixture of talks and live music. 

Live music:  
Kim Myhr & Martin Myrvold 
Intuitive People (Rolf-Erik Nystrøm, Håkon Thelin & NMH, med Signe Emmeluth)

Talks: 
Mary Gabriel 
Daniel Zamani 
Rob Young 

Programme

19:00 Introduction 
Daniel Zamani, curator of The Shape of Freedom exhibition at Museum Barberini Potsdam, gives an overview of the themes and artists within the show in conversation with Christin Fønn Tomte (Head of Interpretation, MUNCH).  
 
19:15 Talk: Ninth Street Women: Five Revolutionary Abstract Painters – Mary Gabriel 
US author and art expert Mary Gabriel will give an illustrated talk on women in the abstract expressionist movement. Gabriel’s book Ninth Street Women is the definitive history of female artists working in the post-war New York art scene.  
 
20:00 Performance: Intuitive People – Rolf-Erik Nystrøm & Håkon Thelin with Signe Emmeluth and students from Norwegian Academy of Music
Free music concert with saxophonist and composer Rolf-Erik Nystrøm, double bassist and composer Håkon Thelin, and a selection of students from their course in improvisation based contemporary music at NMH. Special guest is saxophonist Signe Emmeluth.  
 
20:15 Break

20:35 Talk: Freedom! Music! Now! – Rob Young 
Rob Young (writer and text editor, MUNCH) explains how post-war abstract art made its mark on other art forms, especially modern music and jazz, and how the vision of artistic freedom was used as a political tool in the Cold War. 

21:05 Kim Myhr Q&A 
Guitarist Kim Myhr has enjoyed critical success with albums such as You | Me and Sympathetic Magic, on the Hubro label. As well as many appearances at jazz festivals in Norway and abroad, he has previously played a concert at the Rothko Chapel in Houston, Texas. 

21:15 Performance: Kim Myhr & Martin Myrvold  
Kim Myhr will close the evening with a special solo guitar and electronics performance in collaboration with lighting artist Martin Myrvold. The two will create a magical, audio visual feast for the ears and eyes with coloured lighting and video projections onto unique sculptures. 

22:00 End