"Natten viker"
Signed CK. Executed in 1948. Canvas 50 x 57 cm. The frame is made by the artist's wife Ruth Kylberg.
Beijers Modern Auction 25, spring 1988, lot no 169.
Private collection.
As a teenager, Carl Kylberg worked on the school ship Abraham Rydberg inspired by his older brother Fredrik who was a sailor and already had been working at the same ship. The experiences he had on board during this short period of time was an inspiration for his work during the rest of his life. One of Kylberg’s most known works are the painting depicting the Flying Dutchman. He also painted several other canvases with mysterious ships in shimmering light and shadows.
The auction's work "Natten viker” is a fine example of Kylberg’s painting at its very best. The vague background with the horizontal lines meets the pure, distinct colors that vibrate with strong, inherent power and leaves the observer with a sense of deepest contemplation.
Carl Kylberg, 1878-1952, is considered a seminal figure in the Swedish 1900-century art. He was a student at the architecture department at Berlin University and then a student of Carl Wilhelmson at Valand art school in Gothenburg.
Kylberg broke through late, made his debut as a painter in 1919 with the February group at Liljevalchs. He became known to a wider public by the age of 50, but continued to be controversial as an artist. He had a permanent artistic antagonist of Isaac Grünewald and the same year as the Nazis in Germany set up the decisive blow against Entartete Kunst and practically the whole of modernism, Swedish government stopped the purchase of the painting "Uppbrottet" of the National Museum in Stockholm.
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