“Passionism” is a current in contemporary art that addresses basic existential themes like death, time, istory, pain over loss, longing for what is lost or unattainable, uncertainty about the choices in life – but also love, hope and poetry. These themes are conveyed through figurative and narrative painting, and characterized by solid craftsmanship.

“The passionists” are usually seen as recluses on the art scene, but in my book ”Sorte billeder – Kunst og kanon” [’Black Pictures – Art and Canon’], I have considered them as an artistic current in order to show how they constitute a tendency in contemporary art that has been overlooked for a long time. This is a deliberate and existentially vital current in art with a living relation to the historical traditions of painting. At the same time, the work of the passionists is intrinsically imbued with the experiences, history and artistic development of the 20th an...