Aase Texmon Rygh. The Form of Eternity

Temporary Exhibitions 21.6.2018 - 2.10.2018

We are proud to present this unique touring exhibition produced by the National Museum. “The Form of Eternity” invites the audience to feel the smooth, cold surface of Aase Texmon Rygh’s twisted sculptures of stone. The exhibition takes us closer to Texmon Rygh’s groundbreaking three-dimensional art than ever before.

Aase Texmon Rygh (born 1925) is often referred to as modernism’s “Grand Old Lady” in Norwegian sculpture. At the age of 27, she was the first to introduce abstract sculpture to the Norwegian public. Despite a lot of resistance early in her career, she worked with extraordinary confidence towards an increasingly universal abstract form of language; towards sculptures based on mathematical principles detached from time and space. She says: “Calmness is very important to me. I want people to look for a sense of peace that they lack in themselves and in the present”.

The exhibition is centered around Texmon Rygh’s main works: the so-called Moebius sculptures, also known as the eternity sculptures. Texmon Rygh discovered the mathematical principle of the Moebius strip at a technical museum in Paris during the 1980s. A strip twisted 180 degrees before the ends meet, makes a form without a front or back, inside or outside, beginning or end. She has created five variations over this principle: round, standing, landscape, double and triple, in several different materials. This exhibition lets us experience all five variations in the stone diabase.

The Moebius stones almost asks to be touched with its dark, cold, smooth surfaces and intricate twists. Texmon Rygh is concerned with the body’s relationship to three-dimensional art. For the first time in museums, we give the audience the opportunity to touch these unique works: We can follow the shape with our hand and thus understand the principle and experience the material. In order to support the wordless and sensuous aspects of the sculptures, they will be accompanied by “eternal music”, be it abstract modernist works without a clear beginning or end, or Bach’s Moebius-like compositions. 

We invite school classes to attend «Structured Conversations» which includes sensing, contemplation and drawing in relation to the sculptures.

The exhibition will be here at Alta Museum until the 2nd of October 2018.

Welcome to all that want a grand and unique art experience!