DEN TASMANSKE PRINSESSE
Katalogtekst fra North-Information no. 294/2004
North Art Magazine no. 74, ISSN 0105 2624
Af redaktør Bent Pedersen

Bodil Rosenberg er Maler – Kunstmaler – med stort K og stort M. Det har altid været maleriet i sig selv, der har optaget hende – farven og dens påføring og struktur, fladerne. De genkendelige elementer, der har sneget sig ind undervejs, har kun haft betydning som bærere af farven og har blot understreget maleriets abstrakte karakter. De landskaber, man som beskuer har set i billederne, har man selv medbragt og projiceret ind i dem.

I den foreliggende serie malerier er det figurative element imidlertid blevet mere fremtrædende, fordi de tager udgangspunkt i en historisk beretning, dog uden at gå på kompromis med de maleriske kvaliteter. Der er stadig tale om malerier med abstraktionen som udgangspunkt og grundelement.

Mens landets medier flyder over med beretninger om det royale bryllup, har Bodil Rosenberg fordybet sig i beretningen om den tasmanske prinsesse Truganini, datter af høvdingen for Lulyequonny-folket. Som den sidste indfødte tasmanier døde hun i 1876. Det tog kun kolonisterne en menneskealder at udrydde den oprindelige befolkning, og det er blevet kaldt ”verdens grundigste og hurtigst gennemførte folkemord”.

Selv om nogle af malerierne har et skitseagtigt præg, der harmonerer med inspirationen fra de australske klippemalerier med deres stiliserede figurer, er Bodil Rosenbergs malerier altid gennemarbejdede med farven pålagt i flere lag. Hvert enkelt maleri i serien udtrykker en stemning med et eget toneleje og egen farveholdning, der gør dem meget forskellige. Der er satset markant på hvert enkelt billede.

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The Tasmanian Princess
North-Information no. 294/2004
North Art Magazine no. 74, ISSN 0105 2624
By Bent Pedersen, editor

Bodil Rosenberg is a Painter–an Artist–with a capital P and a capital A. She has always been preoccupied with the painting itself–the colour and its application and structure, the surfaces. The recognisable elements that have appear, serve as vehicles of colour only, and emphasize the abstract nature of the painting. The landscapes that the spectator actually sees in the paintings, are the viewer’s very own projections on to the paintings themselves.

In the present series of paintings the figurative element has become more prominent, because they have a historical account as their starting point, without compromising, however, the artistic qualities. The paintings still have abstraction as their background and basic element.

While the media abound with accounts of the royal wedding, Bodil Rosenberg immerses herself in the story of the Tasmanian princess, Truganini, daughter of the chief of the Lyluequonny tribe. She was the last aboriginal Tasmanian when she died in 1876. Within a lifetime the colonists had exterminated the indigenous population. It has been labeled “the world’s most thorough and fastest executed genocide”.

Although a few of them have a sketch quality about them, well attuned to the inspiration from Australian rock paintings and their formalized figures, Bodil Rosenberg’s paintings are always thoroughly prepared, with the colour applied in several layers. Each painting in this series expresses a mood with its own register and colour tone, making them very different. Every single painting has been given prominent attention.

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