Christoffersen, Uffe, *1947, painter and graphic artist

Uffe Christoffersen is a figurative artist in the true sense of the word. At the same time he can be called an example of the neo-expressionist school, which has developed in Denmark since the beginning of the seventies, and which was driven forward by the painters’ group “Violet Sun”, which was dissolved in 1988. Christoffersen who was primus motor in this group has become known for his colourful representations of wild animals, especially concentrating on the individual animal’s characteristics:- shape, colour, texture, movement, and most difficult of all, the psyche of the wild animal. Like many of his generation’s artists he has rediscovered painting as a means of expression. His treatment of oil paint as a medium is very consciously full of colour nuances. He is searching for a pure colour tone. Added to this is a similar conscious use of oil paint as a material, where the painting’s space is built up layer upon layer in a contrast between semi-opaque layers and thick strokes.  Christoffersen’s concentration on colour does not limit itself to the aesthetic realm. On his many travels he has sought out the basic colour materials where they occur in their raw state. Then the samples he brought home have been examined and tested in numerous laboratory experiments. Through these experiments Christoffersen has reached a vast insight into different colours’ possibilities of expression, and it is with this technical ballast he is able to improvise and follow his artistic intuition. Christoffersen is an original and talented artist and at the same time classically disciplined and liberatedly modern. His special choice of subjects allows him cultivate the elements of the painting, but his interest for animal life contains a warm affection for nature which is in constant threat of destruction because of man’s misuse.  Maybe the animals he exhibits can be experienced as modern fables on human relations. Christoffersen’s pictures appeal strongly to one’s immediate experience as well as inspiring to deeper reflections.

Litterature:

Annemette Fogh in “Violet Sun 1”, 1986, 1, 24-26.

U.C.: “An Ochre Experience”, 1980 privately published brochure.

U.C.: in “The Art of Painting..How?”, Vejle Museum of Art, 1982 & 1980-84.

Sven Jørn Andersen in “The Danes”, Liljevalchs and The Cultural Centre, Stockholm, 1984-85, 139-152.

Knud Voss in “Violet Sun”, Nordic Cultural Centre, Sveaborg, Helsingfors, 1979.

Folkebladet Sydjylland (daily newspaper), 4.1.1990.

Leif Dalgaard in “Art without Frontiers”, The Free Exhibition Hall, 1991.

U.C. & Sven Jørn Andersen in “U.C.”, Trapholt 1993.

Thomas Kappel: “Carnivora”, 1993

SJA