Dissertation lecture: Kitty Kielland

Kitty L. Kielland (1843–1914) painted, wrote, and acted in a time when both nature and the cultural and political landscapes were undergoing significant change. By focusing on the themes of landscape change, freedom, and liberation, connections between Kielland's art, societal engagement, and participation in the public sphere are illuminated.

This dissertation is the first art historical study of Kielland's artistic career. A selection of her artworks and writings are analyzed through ecocritical perspectives, theories of republican freedom, and recent art historical research on women’s networks, collaboration, and negotiations of artistic identity. The ecocritical perspectives involve rethinking the relationships between nature, culture, and art, while the republican concept of freedom emphasizes the idea that freedom requires a free space. The dissertation proposes that the themes of landscape change, freedom, and liberation should be viewed in the context of the private, hybrid, and public spaces that Kielland's art and texts engaged with and operated within.

Kielland’s paintings of Jæren and Brittany are interpreted in a transregional context, focusing on the shared landscape type of coastal heathlands and the transitions from small-scale societies to early industrialization. The dissertation demonstrates how Kielland portrays boulders and engages with the Ice Age theory of positivism. Several peat bog paintings are re-examined from an ecocentric perspective, incorporating anthropocentric voices from Kielland's own time.

The themes of the dissertation link Kielland’s artistic and feminist endeavors. Through a series of interpretations, various forms of freedom are explored. The study shows how certain paintings, short stories, and essays address issues such as equality, openness about sexuality, individuality, and independence.

Cand.philol. Inger M.L. Gudmundson of the Department of Philosophy, Classics, History of Art, and Ideas will defend her dissertation, "Towards the Horizontal: Landscape Changes, Freedom, and Liberation as Themes in Kitty L. Kielland's Art and Texts," for the degree of philosophiae doctor (Ph.D.) at the University of Oslo on February 7, 2025.

The research project is the result of a fellowship at UiO, in collaboration with Stavanger Art Museum (MUST) and the Norwegian Research Council’s Public Sector Ph.D. program. The project also received support from Smedvig AS. Inger M.L. Gudmundson is currently employed as a curator at Stavanger Art Museum.

The lecture will be held in Norwegian.