Irmelin’s art is a clear mirror of her nature, and the strongly poetic ideas in her mind are the first we also see in her paintings
In her studio in Padua, 1990
In short:
Irmelin Slotfeldt-Ellingsen (1933-2026) was a Norwegian-Italian painter. She was born and raised in Oslo (Norway), but worked as a painter all her life in Italy.
She studied art in Paris, Oslo and Rome. Particularly important to her was her time with the French painter Anders Osterlind and the Norwegian Kai Fjell. She made her debut at the National Autumn Exhibition (Oslo) in 1959, and her first solo exhibition was at Kunstnerforbundet (Oslo) in 1960.
She married the Italian art photografer Alberto Papafava dei Carraresi (1933-2020) in 1960 and moved to Italy. First to Rome, then Milan and finally Padua, her husband's hometown. She returned to Norway in 2024.
She used Irmelin Slotfeldt or Irmelin Slotfeldt Papafava as professional names and signed her paintings with ‘SLOTFELDT’. From 1967 she used acrylic paint on canvas. Her style can be called ‘abstract expressionism’.
She has a large production, has had a number of solo exhibitions, participated in several collective exhibitions and is represented in museums and private art collections.
‘Here we meet a painter with a beautiful and developed colour instinct. Her colourist's nerve is sensitive, and she operates with a scale of blue, maroon and red-violet deep-toned colours, which are her greatest asset, and which give her pictures a life of their own and a personal attitude’ (O. Mæhle in Dagbladet (Oslo) at her debut, 1960).
‘Irmelin Slotfeldt’s paintings combines a refined perception of space and forms, a keen intelligence for reality and a delicate sensitivity to chromatic relationships’ (from Georgio Segato’s exibition presentation in 1987).
‘An artist who admirably combines the magic of Nordic fairy tales with the sweetness of the Venetian landscape’ (Maria Pia Codato, 1997).
‘One notices a sensitivity and musicality in her canvases and the colours are used in an almost rhythmic form. While the large canvases almost physically overwhelm you, the small ones appeal to the intellect, – we are captivated by the harmony and sensitivity that the Norwegian artist expresses’ (from Georgio Segato’s exibition presentation in 2006).
‘In her exploration of the forms and the hidden laws of matter, she arrives at a painterly expression that is clearly more rational than emotional, and so harmonious that it reminds one of Bach’s rhythmic music, where the colours take on mystical overtones typical of the Nordic world’ (Sergia Jessi in Corriere del Veneto, 2006).
‘The National Museum [in Norway] emphasizes that around 1970 Slotfeldt “developed a distinctive abstract painting, which hints at nature and architecture” and with her uniqueness adds new facets to the story of Norwegian modernism’ (Kåre Bulie in Klassekampen (Oslo), 2020).
Flowers by the river (1997, 150x150 cm)