Gösta Adrian-Nilsson
"Ilja" (Portrait of Karl Edvard Holmström)
Executed in Lund circa 1911-12. Canvas 67 x 47 cm.
Provenance
Private collection.
Exhibitions
Lunds Konsthall, "GAN och Wiwen Nilsson", 3 July - 28 Aug 1977, no. 6 (under the title "Porträtt av ung man, 1900-talets början").
Prins Eugens Waldemarsudde, Stockholm, "GAN - modernistpionjär och outsider", 19 Febr - 29 May 2011, no. 4.
Malmö Konstmuseum, "GAN. Gösta Adrian-Nilsson", 19 June - 4 Sept 2011.
Literature
Jan Torsten Ahlstrand, "GAN. Gösta Adrian-Nilsson. Modernistpionjären från Lund. 1884-1920", 1985, mentioned and illustrated page 29.
Designer
Gösta Adrian-Nilsson is most notable as a visual artist, and he is a pioneer of Swedish modernism. He studied at the Tekniske Selskabs Skole in Copenhagen and later for Johan Rohde at Zahrtmann’s school in Copenhagen. As an avant-gardist, Nilsson was constantly searching for new influences. In Berlin, he was influenced by the circle around the radical magazine Der Sturm, through Kandinsky and och Franz Marc. In Paris through Fernand Legér and the artists in his circle. GAN was an eclectic in the positive sense of the word. He took the the artist styles of the 1900s and created new impressions. Symbolism, cubism, futurism, expressionism, constructivim and Theosophy were the colours occupying his internal pallet. He had a sharp eye for the masculine and his painting was often energized by the vitality of modern technology, vibrant eroticism, and echoes of tyrants. No other Swedish modern artist exhibits such a unique style.
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