Aksel Waldemar Johannessen

Aksel Waldemar Johannessen (born 1880 in Oslo; died 25 October 1922) was a Norwegian artist. He is known for doing graphics but also was a sculptor and painter. His works are classified as expressionist.

Life
Johannessen grew up in the neighborhood of Hammersborg, which was part of Oslo. Mostly poor people lived there. He attended the state-run art school. There, he studied sculpting under Lars Utne. In 1907, he married another student, Anna Nilsen. They had two daughters. Around 1910, the couple moved to Gjøvik, where Johannessen found a job as a designer for furniture. At the start of the First World War, they moved back to Oslo, and he started painting. When painting, he soon developed his own style, which was always critical of the conditions of people. His work has also been seen as a realist. In 1921, his wife was diagnosed with cancer. Johannesson started drinking more and more alcohol. As he was in bad health, he died of pneumonia.

It was only after his death that his paintings were displayed at an exposition. Norwegian art critic Jappe Nilssen, a good friend and discoverer of Edvard Munch, said of Johannessen's work, "I dont remember seeing similar works in nordic painting". Munch himself stated, "Today, no better images are painted". Despite this, Johannessen was forgotten. Only in 1990, was his work rediscovered by art collector Haakon Mehren.

Legacy
The play "The Forgotten Painter" by Alexander Kratzer is about the rediscovery of the Johannessen and his work. The first performance, directed by Andreas Baumgartner, was held in 2011 with Harald Bodigbauer as Aksel Waldemar Johannessen and Thomas Schächl as Haakon Mehren.