Ulf Wahlberg

Ulf Wahlberg made his breakthrough in the 1960s with his paintings of American cars in deserted landscapes, subjects taken from his long journeys around the USA. He made his first trip to America in 1965 and it lasted three months. His second trip with artist John-E Franzén in 1966–1967 lasted five months, not only leading to a lifelong friendship but also coming to strongly influence their art, with the subjects and atmosphere of the trip constantly recurring in their respective works.

Wahlberg’s interest in all kinds of motor vehicles emerged early in his childhood. According to Wahlberg himself, the fact that what inspires him, mainly 1950s settings and car models, was entirely due to the environment in which he grew up. In the second half of the 1940s, in Stockholm’s then new southern suburbs, there were very few cars around. Therefore, the sight of the first rare American cars with their smooth lines etched itself firmly on the young Ulf Wahlberg’s retina. Their sweeping lines, panoramic windows and big fins became his style ideal and source of inspiration. He got to know Hot-Rod legend Bosse Sandberg as early as 1965. A few years later, the two of them toured the garages of southern Stockholm looking at Hot Rods and custom cars, each one wilder than the next, an unforgettable experience for Wahlberg.

However, Wahlberg’s art not only revolved solely around cars; he had a wide range in terms of subjects and styles, everything from abstract still lives to interiors and realistic landscapes. But irrespective of his subject and expression, his pictures almost always exude a rare stillness and silence. Wahlberg was a fan of abstraction, and moved things around in his paintings, but was always bound to reality. This is clearly seen in the auction painting from 1967, where the muddle of the scrapyard has been given the look of a collage, with precisely reproduced elements arranged in a way that is both decorative and inspired.
In Wahlberg’s art, the car can symbolise both a human inclination to tame nature and the vagabond’s drive to always be on the way to new destinations.

Ulf Wahlberg had a large number of exhibitions, including in Japan, Paris, Russia, Denmark, the USA and Sweden. He is represented at Nationalmuseum, Moderna Museet, Gothenburg Museum of Art, Malmö Museum and Borås Art Museum.