"Christ revealed above the Eiffel Tower" (Kristus uppenbarar sig över Eiffeltornet (Kristus tillägnad))
Signed GAN. Executed in Halmstad, Sweden in the spring of 1920. Canvas 125 x 50 cm.
The collections of Engineer Egon Östlund, Halmstad/Borås, Sweden.
Nils Lundblad, Karlstad, Sweden
Private collection.
Liljevalchs Konsthall (Liljevalchs Public Art Gallery), Stockholm, ”GAN. GÖSTA ADRIAN-NILSSON. Retrospektivt”, March 29 – April 27, 1958, no. 77; Mjellby Konstgård/Halmstadgruppens Museum, Sweden, ”GÖSTA ADRIAN-NILSSON. GAN 1914-1932”, May 5 – August 4, 2002, no. 29; Prins Eugens Waldemarsudde, Stockholm, "GAN - modernistpionjär och outsider", 19 February 19 - May 29, 2011, no. 46.
”Konst i Svenska Hem”, vol. 3, catalogued p. 140 under collection 165: ”Östlund, Egon, Förste Maskiningenjör, Norra vägen 4, Halmstad”.
Jan Torsten Ahlstrand, ”GAN. Gösta Adrian-Nilsson. Modernistpionjären från Lund 1884-1920”, 1985, mentioned p. 178 as well as mentioned and illustrated full page, p. 181.
Jan Torsten Ahlstrand, ’GAN – den store outsidern i svensk modernism’, article in ”GAN. GÖSTA ADRIAN-NILSSON. PERIODEN 1914-1932”, mentioned pp. 42-43, illustrated in colour p. 42 and listed in the catalogue p. 156.
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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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