Cultural Transfer between Norway and Central Europe, 1890-1925: Stanislaw Przybyszewski, Edvard Munch, Gustav Vigeland

The project pursues a comprehensive reconstruction of the pivotal role of the Polish-German author and art critic Stanislaw Przybyszewski (1868-1927) as an influential mediator in the transnational European cultural field, who facilitated cultural transfe r between Norway and Central Europe, notably by promoting Gustav Vigeland and Edvard Munch in both the German-speaking and the Slavic parts of Europe. The 'King of Bohemia' as he was called by contemporaries, was not only a major protagonist of the networ k of artistic and intellectual Bohemian subculture, but also a transnationally operating impresario, whose art-critical reflections had a wide circulation with a considerable impact on contemporary social-aesthetic discourse, contributing to the recogniti on of Vigeland and Munch. Existing art-historical accounts cover Przybyszewski´s role only in a fragmentary way. The proposed project will present, instead, a comprehensive account of his share in Norwegian-Central European transfer of ideas and aesthetic patterns focusing on the reception and circulation of his art-critical views articulated in publications and correspondence, combined with a mapping of his extensive personal transborder network from an interdiscliplinary perspective. As a case study thi s analysis of cultural exchange on a European scale aims at a contribution to the reflection on transnational art history. The reconstruction necessitates research with a specific focus on the popularisation of Munch´s and Vigeland´s iconography and style . Next to research in Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Serbia and Croatia, research in Norwegian museums, archives and libraries is quintessential to the project, since they keep much material, which is not explored yet regarding Przybyszews ki´s mediator role (notably sources relating to Munch, Vigeland, his Norwegian wife Dagny Juel and others) and will allow new insights in Przybyszewski as promotor of Munch and Vigeland in Central Europe and beyond.