HØST returns

17 June 2022

25 June – 22 October 2022

A wide selection of Oluf Høst paintings, which are not normally on display at the Oluf Høst Museum. 

With the exhibition, the paintings return to the place where most of them were created, Hedvig and Oluf Høst’s home Norresân in Gudhjem, which also houses the artist’s three studios. 

The winter studio on the first floor of the house and two smaller studios, spectacularly located in the museum’s steep rocky garden.

The home and working conditions in Gudhjem (from 1929-1966) became crucial for Oluf Høst. 

Here his main works were created: The famous midsummer bonfires, the herring smokeries, the star constellation Orion in the winter night, the religious paraphrases and, of course, the Bognemark farm, which Oluf Høst bought before his artist rival Niels Lergaard in order to be able to paint it in peace.

“Bognemark with Baltic/Ole as Angel” shows the iconic farm that Oluf Høst ended up painting more than 100 times over a period of 30 years.

Oluf Høst refers in the subtitle to his and his wife Hedvig’s son, Ole Wiedemann Høst, who died on the Eastern Front in 1943. 

“Høst Returns Home” shows this world of motifs. The exhibition also shows how the first colouristic representations from Dragør develop into colour experiments, which Oluf Høst corageously carried out in the 1930s-1950s, clearly influenced by the artists’ milieu that emerged in Gudhjem during those years. 

Later, the more mature and experienced painter dissolves his palette into  pastel, and his brush becomes confident and porous.

Among the latest works in the exhibition are the so-called Orion pictures, which Oluf Høst painted in his old age from a window in Norresân with a view of the stars, and a winter picture of Gudhjem seen from the hill ”Bokul” on a frosty day. 

The Museum wish to thank especially the Høst family, for providing an opportunity to show a number of important works not belonging to the Oluf Høst Museum.