The artist, illustrator, portrait artist, cartoonist and political illustrator Finn Graff has been in the front line of the art of drawing for over fifty years as a illustrator in the newspaper.
From a slightly withdrawn position, he closely follows all areas of current affairs from big politics to the small events of everyday life referenced in the media. Every day he takes on injustice, arrogance of power, abuse and all the world's misery and conflicts. His weapon is intellectually wit and a wide range of artistic means to express his daily comments as precisely and varied as possible, to the delight of the newspaper's readers.
Finn Graff has an archive where all the drawings are neatly registered with date from the time in Arbeiderbladet in the early 60's and up to today. An incredible chronicle of half a century of events from home and abroad in over 10,000 drawings in A4 format - originals, copies and digital prints. The pictures for this exhibition are mostly taken from this archive.
Bio
Finn Graff was born in northern Germany on the flat island of Wangerooge in 1938 and was originally named Finn Wöhlecke. The island was heavily bombed during the last phase of the war. His father was a pilot in the Luftwaffe and was shot down in 1944. His mother, Margit Graff, who was half Norwegian, fled to Norway in 1946 with Finn and his three brothers. The children had to live in an orphanage, Vaisenhuset in Oslo, before the mother managed to get an apartment. "I can not stand authorities," Finn Graff has said in interviews, and it may stem from these difficult years.
While studying under Chrix Dahl at SHKS (1959-1963), he started as an illustrator at Morgenposten in the years 1960-63. Then he became associated with Arbeiderbladet (1963-88) and following a proposal from Graff, he started, in approx.1974, to make political drawings in the editorial every day - there he made newspaper history. He started at Dagbladet in 1988 and is still the newspaper's indisputable political illustrator with his independent illustrations to the journalists' texts on page 3, and with his portraits and caricatures for Magasinet in the weekends.
Graff is a diligent artist. Sidsel Helliesen wrote: "Graff's production is formidable, his political involvement is intense and his form of expression is striking". He has illustrated a number of books, had solo exhibitions around the country and abroad, including: Finn Graff Portraits at The National Museum in 1998, Finn Graff: Characters and caricatures at Sonja Henie - Niels Onstad Kunstsenter, Høvikodden 2005 and at Nils Aas Kunstverksted, Inderøy 2014. Solo exhibition with watercolors in Galleri Haaken in 1982 and 1987 and in 1989 he was Festspilutstiller in Haugesund. Among his illustration assignments these can be highlighted: Bokklubben Lyrikkboken - en antologi,1971, Jens Bjørneboe Jonas 1984, Arild Nyquist Gullens drøm om en øy 1997, Åge Bringsværd's series Vår gamle gudelære from 1986, Johan Borgens trilogi om Lillelord 1989, Trond Berg Eriksen Veien til Toscana - art cities between Ferrara and Lucca , 2000, Sigrid Undset Happy days 2004. Graff delivered drawings to several magazines, including Nytt norsk tidsskrift between 1984 - 2009.
Graff is represented in all major public collections in Norway, including The National Museum, and in several foreign collections such as Samlung Karikaturen & Cartoons, Basel. He has received a several awards at home and abroad, including Oslo Municipality's Art Prize in 2004 and Humanistisk kulturpris in 2006. He was knighted as 1st class in the Order of St. Olav in 2006.
(Excerpt from curatorial text by Holger Koefoed).
