Per Mølgaard: The Rain, the Mind & the Waltz

It is our great pleasure to present Per Mølgaard’s second solo exhibition at the gallery, The Rain, The Mind & The Waltz. In this exhibition, Mølgaard presents a series of new oil paintings that explore various states of mind, using nature as a point of departure. The paintings are built up from many thin layers of oil paint, which almost etch themselves into and soak into the canvas. On top of these deep layers, subtle figurations emerge— birds, trees, coastlines, the sea, and flowers. In a few works, one can catch sight of a small wandering figure or a couple embracing.

The Rain, The Mind & The Waltz builds on the paintings Mølgaard has been developing over recent years. The tripartite structure of the canvas remains present in several works, suggesting the simultaneous presence of both an inner and outer world. However, clear figuration has receded into the background in favor of a greater degree of abstraction. Impressionistic dabs of paint, combined with Mølgaard’s technique of thinning the paint with water and turpentine, give the images a flickering, suggestive quality. More than ever before, they function as concentrated essences - or reductions - of specific mental states.

Form and content are mutually dependent in Per Mølgaard’s painting. He works long and persistently on each piece, striving for the two to merge into an organic whole, where “state of mind” is a more accurate description than landscape. One senses a longing for something beyond the human self - perhaps the desire to lose oneself in nature and love - but also a grief for the human condition: that we are ultimately alone.

Mølgaard has stated that a painting must be credible. It should not illustrate a thought or tell a story, but rather convey moods. Moods that are at times heavy, yet subtle and suffused with honesty. An honesty that can almost hurt—in vulnerability, in seriousness, and in the grandeur of nature. Nature’s beauty is central to Mølgaard - whether manifested in blossoming, like the red splashes of poppies and the birds’ wings across the sky, or in total dissolution, where the horizon disappears and all fixed points become indistinct.