See the larger paintings from the trinity: spontaneous, figurative, and abstract acrylic paintings here:
The major spontaneous works from 2022 to 2025

The digital-graphic single works, including:
All 8 individual images from the art video 1st LP the LooP

- and the 8 single images from the art video 2nd LP the LooP.

Part 1: FIRST TWO SOLO EXHIBITIONS
My first solo exhibition at Galleri Vära, followed by a second at Galleri Teatergaten. All the paintings in these exhibitions were created in black and white.

Part 2: THEN THE COLOURS CAME
Then came the colors – suddenly they were indispensable!

Part 3: GESAMTKUNSTWERK and HAT REDEMPTION
My Hatshepsut Project, which received patronage from UNESCO in Paris.

Part 4: FAILED FAMILY PHOTOS WITHOUT FRAMES
This work is based on old family photographs, where the entire roll of film had to be developed – even the failed shots.

Part 5: IS DIGITAL ART ORIGINAL ARTWORKS?
Many still hold misconceptions about digital painting – even though the Norwegian Printmakers’ Association recognizes it as approved graphic art.

Part 6: TO FLIP THE PROCESS AROUND
Here I show works painted digitally, both as individual pieces and as video art.

Part 7: SPONTANEOUS-FIGURATIVE-ABSTRACT
In my artistic process, the spontaneous painting became the painterly trinity.

In 1970/71 I received training in serigraphy (silkscreen) in Voss, and the following year in Manger (1971/72), where I focused exclusively on painting. Later, when I tried to continue my art studies in Trondheim, I dropped out after half a year and moved to Karlsøy in Northern Norway – part of the “back-to-nature” movement. There I learned to illustrate articles and design covers for the legendary underground magazine Vannbæreren (“The Aquarius”).

The education that truly shaped me, however, came through direct learning from established artists: First, Lars Tiller in 1972, who taught me that blue can feel “near,” red “far away,” and that the color of love is brown.
Then Ryszard Warsinski in 1984, who steered me away from using black pigment and showed me how to mix the primary colors to create black.
Most recently, Larry Poons, who through his inspiration opened the gate to what I define as spontaneous painting.

Self-study and dialogue with art and artists – across continents, time periods, expressions, and disciplines – have throughout the process been an essential foundation in my artistic education.

2024 – 29 September – Rogaland Kunstsenter
Group exhibition, Rogaland Kunstsenter, Stavanger.
Rogaland kunstsenter, NBK-R, 27/09 2024

2008 – 7 June – Bergensavisen (BA)
Solo exhibition, Galleri Neptun, Bergen.
Mislykkede Familiefoto

1990 – 14 May – Søndagsrevyen, NRK (National Television)
Theatrium, Aker Brygge, Oslo – and the art project in Egypt.
Åpning Hatshepsut prosjektet – NRK Søndagsrevyen

1990 – 12 May – Arbeiderbladet (now Dagsavisen)
Theatrium, Aker Brygge, Oslo – and the art project in Egypt.
Hatshepsut prosjektet - Arbeiderbladet

1990 – 12 May – Norpress (Norwegian press agency, distributed to ~50 newspapers nationwide)
Theatrium, Aker Brygge, Oslo – and the art project in Egypt.
Norpress pressebyrå om Hatshepsut prosjektet

1986 – 3 May – Dagbladet
Art project at Drammen Kunstforening – with Johan Sandborg and Morten Børresen.
Duster i Drammen - Dagbladet

1985 – 21 May – Dagbladet
Greetings from the Great Cities – Wang Kunsthandel and the Norwegian Contemporary Art Calendar.
Between Berlin and New York - Dagbladet

1985 – 25 May – Dagbladet
Art project during Molde Jazz Festival – with Morten Børresen and Lister.
Molde Jazz Festival - Dagbladet

1985 – 25 May – Adresseavisen
The trio Morten Børresen, Lister, and Arnvid Aakre behind a series of performances and happenings.
Molde Jazz Festival - Adressa 25.07 1985

1985 – 4 June – Dagbladet
Kulturhuset Den Hvite Elefant (The White Elephant) at Ingierstrand Bad.
Elefant med bad og kunst - Dagbladet

1984 – 11 June – Dagbladet
Art project at Centralteatret, Oslo – with Dagfinn Knudsen, Gabrielle Kielland, and Jan Erik Willgohs.
Ai ai, kunst og krig - Dagbladet

FREE ART
– OR LIBERATING ART?

Arnvid Aakre, 2025

The concept of “historical time” begins in different cultures with the emergence of the written word..



In ancient Egypt, this happened about 5,000 years ago – and the written word was expressed through a visual language.
In the “classical” period of ancient Egypt (which lasted for nearly 3,000 years, including its ebbs and flows), artists depended on commissions from the powerful: decorations for the tombs and temples of rulers, and for the tombs of the nobility.

Although the decorations in their own tombs primarily served to secure a safe passage through the afterlife for themselves and their families, here we can glimpse individual artists expressing themselves in a freer and more personal manner than in their official commissions.

In the artisans’ village (Deir el-Medina) in Luxor, artists could work on their own tombs after ten-hour workdays painting the Pharaoh’s “guide through the Amduat” (the underworld/afterlife) inside the cliff tombs of the Valley of the Kings. This village existed from the 18th Dynasty until the end of the 20th Dynasty (ca. 1550–1080 BCE).

In the “classical” period of European history, artists such as Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) and Johannes Vermeer (1632–1675), and their contemporaries, were also dependent on powerful patrons. The nobility acted as protectors, while the Church exercised strong control over art.

Later, artists like William Blake (1757–1828) and Francisco Goya (1746–1827) introduced social critique and chose to work more independently. In doing so, they contributed to loosening art from commissions and “decoration.”
Still, the academies and collectors retained significant influence.

Around the 1850s, artists such as Vincent van Gogh worked entirely outside the framework of the market – despite his brother being an art dealer. Claude Monet and the Impressionists openly broke with academic authority. Both paved the way for what was to come.
Claude Monet and the Impressionists openly broke with academic authority. Both paved the way for what was to come.

In the 20th century, artists like Hilma af Klint, Wassily Kandinsky, Pablo Picasso, and many others took the idea of free art a step further – but by then, museums and curators had begun to gather increasing influence.

After the 1960s came installation and conceptual art, with the idea that art is primarily based on ideas. Joseph Beuys declared that “every human being is an artist, a freedom-being” – an attempt to erase the boundary between art and life. Marcel Broodthaers explored, often with irony, the role of the curator and the museum as power structures. Marina Abramović challenged both audiences and institutions through performance – even as painting experienced a kind of renaissance in Europe in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s.

Clear differences also exist between European and American art. In the U.S., star curators such as Clement Greenberg and Harold Rosenberg could dominate the narrative of art with nearly unchecked power. See, for example, Tom Wolfe’s The Painted Word, or David Balzer’s more recent Curationism: How Curating Took Over the Art World and Everything Else.

Today there are several star curators (and many who aspire to be) at every level. They do not buy art themselves but act as catalysts for investments in private and institutional collections. The looming danger for them is that if they cannot demonstrate an increase in the value of the art/investments they recommend, they quickly lose their position.

These star curators function in practice as advisers to a kind of art stock exchange – with art as a medium for speculation.
Note: This does not, of course, apply to the majority of curators – but one would have to be quite naïve not to see how this tendency affects the art world.

One of the first to flee the Western art market was Paul Gauguin. Marcel Duchamp also withdrew almost entirely from the art world – rejecting both the market, the career ladder, and curatorial control.

Many others could be mentioned, but Banksy stands out as a strong contemporary example. What unites such artists is that they refuse to adapt to the logic of sales – and they force the question: What is art, really?

Personally, I went to Egypt in 1989 and stayed until 2003 – far away from the Western art industry. I did not return to flatter star curators, but because my eldest daughter was starting school – and the education system here is, after all, different from that in Egypt.

From da Vinci to Banksy, a profound shift has taken place. It is a natural development: power has moved from the visible hands of kings and churches to today’s more diffuse struggle over control of free art.

We already see clear signs – as under the Trump administration in the U.S., where “dangerous” art was proposed for censorship, echoing attitudes from before World War II. Here in Norway we have also seen attacks on art under the label of “non-art.”

It is in this context that I hope artists, curators, and art historians – regardless of position – can stand together in the struggle for free art..

Whether this is possible, I do not know.
But it is certainly worth hoping for, and even more: worth influencing art mediation and both new and established funding structures, so that it might happen..