Our artist in a class of his own:
Hans Normann Dahl 1937–2019
What do we know about what agreement Hans Normann Dahl had with St.Peter? Door opener to the kingdom of heaven? Seen from the ground, it seems as if for once he showed up on time with a good margin and well so. No gesturing thumb or other distracting maneuver was required; his well-known charm stage to camouflage the delays, the many infamous. Thumbs up now belong to past earthly trivialities. But the occasional anecdote was probably delivered at the meeting with our Lord for the sake of coziness - for sure. The Dahlian mood, which we down here have been able to enjoy for a large number of years.
Hans Normann Dahl has been an institution. The fabulous illustrator, the beautifully flattering illustrator, the always benevolent colleague and the Designers' Association - the enthusiast. An unstoppable, creative editor of the current journal Numer . An impulsive tour guide and overwhelmed teacher. And not least - the harsh and politically awake world-class cartoonist.
We have dreamed of mood-saturated picture books filled with condensed summer idyll, where illustrator Hans caresses chubby horses in moonlight and houses with a teddy bear factor, houses you feel like crawling next to and into. A lovely, pot-shaped lady has taken a divan - she lies there with violet eyes, swan-white breasts in generous neckline and questionable innocence. When the opportunity arose, he showed a distinctive feeling for deciduous forests and old oak trees. Hans made them beautiful and gave them personality: Here I stand, I am an ancient tree - there are many who seek refuge with me, and I welcome you. He showed us that between naturalism and imagination, poetry lies latent.
Tegner Dahl belonged to these few, damn brilliant natural talents who seem to achieve everything they want. A vagabond with the sketchbook sticking out of his corduroy trousers; he settled down at a café table in Drøbak, Florence or Luxor; pencils are sharpened, pencil sharpeners scratch, moments - literally - are captured. Not everyone is happy about that.
Hans N. Dahl as a drawing tour guide in Italy: It goes away, from piazza to piazza - neat renaissance and swollen baroque. His flying line makes the drawings lighten from the sheet; they are unpretentious towards the shabby, giving us the crowd, the sounds and the smells. The bridges of Venice and the colonnades of Bologna. The alleys and the shadows. Pompeii red, umbra and sepia. Tegner Dahl enjoys himself; one discovers yet another variant of the distinctly Dahlian well-being embracing espresso and chianti, lame dogs and old black-clad old women. Even the arrogant marble columns get a hint of merriment in this scenario. And as an outstanding observer, he had developed a sharp vision for noses. A distinctive nose - he always found one - could become a central element in a large drawing, a humorous guide in the throng.
But not just mere idyll, the popular illustrator and creator of an adventurous ABC - did he not also have a fox behind his ear? For under the seemingly laid-back good-naturedness lurked a sharp, introverted and sarcastic commentator who was allowed to unfold on Dagbladet's pages through the eventful "seventies". It was a real pain to follow him, thanks to the coincidences that you got to experience this period in the newspaper history's local history, political commentary drawings and caricatures aimed at domestic and international sizes and situations. The actors became the subject of the most infamous visual interpretation. The signature Hans N. Dahl meant accurate observations, humor combined with a sharpened message.
Hans Normann Dahl was a role model and a mentor to many. It is impossible to imagine anything other than that he is still active and awake, in passiar with our Lord, who created the earth with light and shadow, phenomena a cartoonist has a close relationship with. Precisely the creator should have the prerequisites to be able to enjoy this quote from Hans: «Enjoy your right hemisphere! We who like to call ourselves 'the creative', look with measured skepticism on the left! "
Our Lord can have a little of everything in store.
- Ingun Bøhn
(Illustration: Finn Graff)
