Provenance: Eva-Lisa Lennartsson and Kåre Myrberg (grandson to Eva-Lisa).

Vilhelm Bjerke-Petersen (1909–1957) was a central figure in Danish and Nordic modernism, and his artistic practice spans both abstract and figurative surrealism. Bjerke-Petersen grounded his work in a strong theoretical and philosophical framework, inspired by the ideals of surrealism and by psychoanalysis, particularly Freud’s interpretation of dreams. This influence is evident in his surrealist works, where recurring symbols such as stones, trees, and floating figures serve as images of humankind’s connection with nature and the subconscious.

Bjerke-Petersen sought an artistic synthesis in which all elements merge into a unified whole. As he himself expressed it: “Until now, one has placed all things beside or behind one another. Now we must place them inside one another.” This notion of fusion and coexistence became a guiding principle in his artistic development and is clearly manifested in his decorative works, executed together with his wife, Elsa Thoresen, in thirteen stairwells Ved Volden on Christianshavn, as well as in wall paintings in buildings located in Østerbro and Frederiksberg.

A particularly significant phase in Bjerke-Petersen’s artistic development was his surrealist period, which lasted for over a decade. During this time, he experimented with symbols, motifs, and forms in a continuous exploration of the visual language of dreams and the unconscious. The decorations at Ved Volden were carried out in the late 1930s and early 1940s, a few years after the publication of his book Surrealismen (1934), in which he articulated his ideas about the movement’s potential as both an artistic and psychological method.

On the 4th of November, a collection of drawings from his time at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Oslo, along with sketches for the aforementioned decorative projects — including four studies for Ved Volden — will be presented. In these drawings, the interplay between humanity, nature, and the unconscious becomes evident. Bjerke-Petersen translates his theory of placing things “inside one another” into practice, weaving motifs together into organic wholes rather than separating them as individual elements.

These works testify to Bjerke-Petersen’s ability to use art as a means of exploring the inner landscapes of the human mind — a theme that permeated his entire oeuvre. Through his experiments with surrealist imagery and the pure forms of abstraction, Vilhelm Bjerke-Petersen maintains a lasting and central position within twentieth-century Danish and Scandinavian art history.