Staffan Hallström
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"Gunghästar i batalj"
Staffan Hallström and dated -74. Canvas 210 x 220 cm.
Provenance
Gallery Argo, Stockholm.
Exhibitions
Tomarps kungsgård, "Staffan Hallström", 1 July - 5 September 2001.
Literature
Helsingborgs Dagblad, 2001, ill.
More information
Staffan Hallström's colorful and enigmatic compositions are the most beloved and recognizable works of his generation. His best-known motif, Ingens hundar (Dogs of the Night), was Hallström's (1914-1976) big public breakthrough. In a poll of the most popular works at Moderna Museet, Ingens hundar came an honorable second place.
Staffan Hallström studied under modernists such as Isaac Grünewald and Olle Hjortzberg at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm in the second half of the 1930s. During this period he also came into contact with older painting that influenced his view of art. Names like Delacroix, Rubens Tizian, Géricault and Goya became his household gods. It was also during this time that he developed his particular style of drawing, with many double lines that together form movement, depth and volume.
The first part of the 1950s was difficult, with divorce and bad reviews, before easing up in the 1960s with a new marriage and very positive reviews in connection with a major exhibition at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in 1961. Now his childhood memories began to be reflected in his motifs. The rocking horse is joined by the tin soldiers and the game of chess. “In many paintings, the individual motifs are also mixed and an army of rocking horses can be set up on a chessboard with a horde of rats as opponents. The chessboard becomes the place where the game of life, with life as the stake, takes place. The Riders' Battle (...) is a study of movement in which Staffan Hallström has gone back in history and used Ruben's copy of Leonardo da Vinci's “The Battle of Anghiari” as a starting point. Exhibition catalog Länsmuseet Gävleborg, “Staffan Hallström och Asmund Arle - Genom världen i former”, 15.10.2011 - 19.2.2012.
A variant of the auction's “Gunghästar i batalj” hangs at the Ministry of Civil Affairs in Stockholm.
Artist
Stephan Hallström supported his painting style with a strong expressive foundation. His paintings arose partly through its materials, but also through his inner psyche. The motifs took shape slowly and rather painstakingly. He revised, sketched anew, and painted over until he finally found a composition and color scheme that had the balance and expression he was seeking. Hallström drew inspiration from Delacroix, Rubens, Goya, and Hill's disease drawings. There is also a trace of Giacometti's drawing of figures and the depiction of intense emotional states.
In Hallströms art the sketching process is very important and his paintings radiate as much line work as painterly poetry. For the artist, revisions were crucial to the final result, and the fact that the creative process is allowed to remain in the finished work makes his paintings still feel very present.
The first version of "Ingens hundar" came in 1953. The artist personifies the dogs which have grouped themselves to protect each other from the greater world. Tall and alert, the dogs raise their gaze to their surroundings and they sniff as much danger as fresh morning air. In this tension of opposites, we find the synthesis of Hallström's painting.
Stig Johansson writes in his book about Staffan Hallström "The ideas and emotional states that drove the creation of "Ingens hundar" made these paintings some of the most original in Swedish art. His motifs and visual concepts remain so unique that they can hardly be compared to anything else."
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