{"product_id":"objects-of-the-elements-the-art-of-elsa-thoresen-9780998911274","title":"Objects of the Elements: The Art of Elsa Thoresen","description":"\u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003eThe rediscovery of an important American surrealist painter\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eElsa Thoresen (1906-1994), born in Minnesota to Norwegian immigrant parents, studied at the School of Arts and Crafts and the Academy of Fine Arts in Oslo and at the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Brussels.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAfter marrying Danish artist Vilhelm Bjerke Petersen in 1935, she began working in a surrealist style that brought her recognition in Europe. She was one of only a few women to be included in the International Surrealist Exhibition of 1938 in Paris. André Breton reproduced Thoresen's \u003ci\u003eAtmospheric Landscape\u003c\/i\u003e (1936) in his \u003ci\u003eAbridged Dictionary of Surrealism\u003c\/i\u003e, published for the exhibition. Elsa became friends with several prominent European surrealists, including Sophie Taeuber-Arp. In 1938 Taeuber-Arp reproduced Thoresen's \u003ci\u003eAbstrakt komposition\u003c\/i\u003e in the magazine \u003ci\u003ePlastique\u003c\/i\u003e, which she served as editor.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAside from a brief stay in Paris in 1938, Elsa and Vilhelm lived in Denmark from 1935 until 1944, when the couple and their children relocated to Sweden. There, they befriended and worked alongside the Swedish Halmstad Group of modernist and avant-garde painters.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAfter World War II, the couple spent time in the United States before returning to Sweden in 1947. That year, Thoresen's work was included in the International Exhibition of Surrealism, organized by Marcel Duchamp, André Breton, and Aimé Maeght at the Maeght Gallery in Paris. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eElsa and Vilhelm divorced in 1953. She remarried and relocated to Seattle, where she focused her painting on lyrical, biomorphic abstractions until her death in 1994.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003eDavid F. Martin\u003c\/b\u003e is an internationally recognized art historian and curator who has brought attention to neglected artists of the Pacific Northwest. For over thirty years he has focused on women, Asian American, and LGBT artists active in the mediums of painting, printmaking, sculpture, and photography.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Cascadia Art Museum","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51834623557906,"sku":"9780998911274","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_e3f98156-eefd-443b-afe7-7002afb0111d.jpg?v=1767095670","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/objects-of-the-elements-the-art-of-elsa-thoresen-9780998911274","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}