Bj\u00f8rn Ransve\u2019s (b. 1944) artistic practice may at first glance appear very inconsistent. He has shifted from a figurative, old master style to a strict non-figurative expression,\u00a0to once again approach\u00a0figuration.<\/p>\n
In terms of his subject matter, he has focused on apes and lions, harlequins and Native Americans, torn-off human limbs, abstract forms and geometrical patterns. This\u00a0diversity must not be confused with indecisiveness or a lack of concentration, however. On the contrary, throughout his entire multifaceted production, the fundamental resonance in Ransve\u2019s imagery has been unchanging; he continuously considers basic existential questions about what it means to be human, while simultaneously examining equally\u00a0fundamental formal problems and means. As few other Norwegian artists Bj\u00f8rn Ransve is conscious of the\u00a0significance of form.<\/p>\n
Ransve made use of\u00a0 the harlequin figure in drawings as early as the late 1960s, but it was not until around 1980 that he became seriously absorbed in the motif and treated it at length in a series of works. The harlequin is traditionally portrayed as an enigmatic, ambiguous character that on one side represents jocosity, and on the other loneliness, melancholy and tristesse.<\/p>\n
In Ransve\u2019s Harlequin with Hat<\/i> the melancholic and introverted expression is particularly prominent. The elongated figure stands upright with arms\u00a0pressed against his body as if to protect himself against the undefined,\u00a0penetrating darkness of the background. The fragile air of tristesse and vulnerability in his face stands in stark contrast to the comically long shoes. While the face is modulated in soft semi-dark tones, the clown\u2019s shoes and remainders of the body\u00a0are rather sketchily and summarily depicted. As participant and beholder \u2013 a kind of outsider participant \u2013 the melancholic Harlequin is fundamentally ambiguous. It is no accident that the figure traditionally often symbolises the role of the artist or the creative situation.<\/p>\n
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