Gösta Adrian-Nilsson
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Sailor and boat.
Signed G. A-N. Executed in January 1918. Oil on cardboard 35 x 28,5 cm.
Provenance
Stockholms Auktionsverk, Moderna Kvalitén 15 May 2000, catalog no. 672.
More information
The kaleidoscopic cubo-futurism of Gösta Adrian-Nilsson (GAN) reached its peak in 1918 with the legendary exhibition “Sailor Compositions” at Gummesson’s art gallery in Stockholm. The exhibition would become a milestone in Swedish modern art history. Lot 471 “Sailor and boat” is executed in this very important year. GAN writes in his diary:” I continue with the red and violets. I paint a little ship – a chrome-yellow hull, off-white sails – it is resting in the arms of a sailor”. (January 11, 1918).
We know from earlier entries in the diary that GAN had acquired a model of the sailing ship “Elin” that he kept in the studio at Kungsbroplan in Stockholm. “Elin” takes a prominent place in a number of GAN’s works from this period.
Artist
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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