Olle Bærtling
"Force Noir, Blanc et Rouge"
Signed Baertling and dated 1953 on verso. Canvas 130 x 81 cm.
Provenance
The artist's family
Galerie Bel’Art, Stockholm
Private collection, Stockholm
Exhibitions
Galerie Bel'Art, Stockholm, ”Den tidiga abstrakta perioden 1949-1954”, 2007, reproduced in the catalogue.
Galerie Bel'Art, Stockholm, ”Konkret realism”, 2010.
More information
Målningen FORCE NOIR BLANC ROUGE utförde Olle Baertling i ett skede med ett stort färgfält – svart i denna målning – med omkringliggande triangulära fält. Samtidigt med utförandet av målningen 1953 samarbetade han med Astrid Sampe att göra textila dekorationer för Nordiska Kompaniet. Han utförde flera målningar och litografier med variationer av denna kompositionsform. Baertling har ännu inte låtit färgfälten inneslutas i svarta diagonalkonturer. Färgerna som är tre stycken bidrar i mötet till skimrande efterbildseffekter. Om ögat följer grämslinjen till det blåvita fältet och till det röda fältet uppstår i synupplevelsen en vibrerande ljusare nyans. Samtidigt arbetar Josef Albers med sådana färgstudier. Baertling kände inte till detta, men han var i början av 1950-talet en oberoende pionjär för det som senare skulle kallas för OP-ART.
Om man ska placera verket i Baertlings skaparperioder är detta verket skapat just när idén om ÖPPEN FORM började föresväva konstnären. Varje del av kompositionen förs ut i ramkanten. Ingenting är inneslutet på bildytan.
Denna praktfulla målning bör höra hemma i ett museum. Köparen lyckönskas av
Teddy Brunius
Fil dr, professor emeritus
(september 2010)
Designer
Olle Bærtling was born in Halmstad in Sweden and is most notable for his painting and sculpture. Bærtling studied like Bengt Lindström in Paris for André Lhote and Fernand Léger. His first exhibition took place in Stockholm in 1949. Bærtling works foremost in a geometric, non-figurative style, approaching his art as a scientist would his research. In 1956 Bærtling discovered his open form, the open trangle with sharp angles which express speed. When in 1956 he positioned the apex of the triangle beyond the boundaries of the frame, the canvas became merely a segment of an event occurring beyond our visual field. The sense of speed is emphasized by the colour, which gives the impression of higher velocities the closer to the triangle’s apex. Black outlines are strong characteristics of Bærtling’s art, while they may seem straight, they actually bend inwards towards the large fields, counteracting their outward pressure. Colour was also essential to Bærtling’s work, whereby it was imperative that they could not be found in nature and were not associated to any form or object. Thus Bærtling only utilised secondary colours: violet, orange, green, and Bærtling-white (a week green-tinted colour). His open form is most evident in the sculptures he made from 1958 onwards. Bærtling consistently delved into the interplay between colors and shapes, remaining unaffected by external artistic trends throughout his life. Today, we can see how artists such as Ann Edholm have been inspired by Bærtling's creations.
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