Osmund Hansen (1908–1995) was a Danish painter and printmaker whose work developed from naturalistic landscapes into highly constructed compositions characterized by geometric balance and subtle color sensibility. Although he was largely self-taught, Hansen exhibited great precision and discipline in his abstract language, combining clarity of form with a quiet, meditative tone.
During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Stalke Galleri presented a series of solo and group exhibitions with Osmund Hansen, introducing his art to a younger generation of artists and collectors. At a time when conceptual and expressive trends dominated the Danish scene, Hansen appeared as an outsider — a painter who insisted on form, surface, and structure. His exhibitions at Stalke Galleri gained notable attention for their restraint, precision, and subtle departure from traditional color harmony.
Hansen’s practice reflected a lifelong engagement with the relationship between nature and abstraction. His later works feature tightly organized compositions of planes and diagonals, where soft tonal transitions meet sharp structural divisions. The critic Ann L. Sørensen described his approach as “a clear form- and color language that the eyes can rest on,” noting his ability to make the smallest detail control the entire surface.
Following these exhibitions, Hansen continued to work and exhibit until his death in 1995. Retrospectively, his role in Danish modernism has been reassessed as both independent and essential — bridging early 20th-century constructivism and a later, meditative abstraction.
See also Osmund Hansen solo exhibition at Stalke Project, 1988
Abstract composition by Osmund Hansen, exhibited at Stalke Galleri in 1989.