December 3rd, 2025 – March 8th, 2026
December 3rd, 2025 – March 8th, 2026Cascadia Art Museum presents the first American exhibition and publication to feature the work of Seattle artist Elsa Thoresen (1906-1994).
Her father, a Norwegian immigrant, was a practicing physician in Seattle at the turn of the century before relocating to Minnesota where Elsa was born. After the family moved to Oslo, Norway in 1920, Elsa attended art school where she met the Danish artist Vilhelm Bjerke-Petersen (1909-1957), a fellow student. After developing a romantic relationship, the couple pursued their art education and married in Copenhagen in 1935.
She and her husband were at the forefront of the Surrealist movement in Scandinavia and were included in numerous important exhibitions throughout Europe. After relocating to Sweden in 1944 due to the Nazi occupation of Denmark, Elsa developed a unique personal visual language based on natural forms such as driftwood and fantasy landscapes. After their divorce in 1953, Elsa returned to the U.S. and relocated to Seattle the following year. Although she had tremendous success as a Surrealist abroad, her Northwest paintings concentrated on lyrical, biomorphic abstractions which she produced until her death in 1994.
A small exhibition of paintings and ceramics by Vilhelm Bjerke-Petersen will also be featured in the museum’s West Gallery.
The accompanying publication, Objects of the Elements: The Art of Elsa Thoresen, will be internationally distributed by the University of Washington Press.
Image Credits:
- Elsa Thoresen (1906-1994), Berget i natten (The Mountain at Night), circa 1946. Oil on board. Estate of Elsa Thoresen and Vilhelm Bjerke-Petersen, Courtesy of Alice Tompkins
- Elsa Thoresen (1906-1994), Untitled, circa 1970. Oil on canvas. Estate of Elsa Thoresen and Vilhelm Bjerke-Petersen, Courtesy of Alice Tompkins
- Elsa Thoresen (1906-1994), Untitled, circa 1948. Oil on canvas. Estate of Elsa Thoresen and Vilhelm Bjerke-Petersen, Courtesy of Alice Tompkins.