Norden, Reframed

Abstract

This paper calls for Norden to be understood as a metaframe. Related formulations like “Nordic art” or “Nordic welfare” function as mesoframes. These trigger multiple framing devices. A cache of related framing devices constitutes a framing archive. Framing devices work best when operating unobtrusively such that inclusions, exclusions and inconsistencies are condoned or naturalised. Their artifice, however, becomes apparent whenever a frame is questioned. Questioning or criticising a frame gives rise to a framing dispute. The theoretical justification for these typologies is provided at the outset. This schema is then applied to a select range of empirical examples drawn largely from the disciplinary frames (Ernst 1996) of art history and museum studies. Despite this specificity it is envisaged that the general principles set out below can and will be used to address a variety of devices, disputes and archives in Norden and beyond

European regions and boundaries: a conceptual history

“…Thus, in 1982 a fi rst exposition of Nordic art, titled Northern Light: Realism andSymbolism in Scandinavian Painting, 1880-1910, was organized in New York by the American art historian Kirk Varnedoe. This has been followed by a large number of exhibitions and books on Nordic art and design, mainly outside the Nordic countries (Burch 2010). The more commercially oriented shows, in particular, gave a kind of touristic image of the region, selecting those artistic expressions that were deemed characteristic, such as paintings that depicted the forests and lakes bathed in a northern light, or simple, bright, and functionalist design.…”

“…Moreover, in 1984 a Nordic Committee for Art History was founded. Since 2005 there has been a joint Nordic research organization, which also funds a Nordic Network on Visual Studies (Burch 2010;Karlholm, Christensen, and Rampley 2012, 421-39). This international scientifi c infrastructure will probably produce more sustained interest in Nordic topics.…”