Gösta Adrian-Nilsson
GÖSTA ADRIAN-NILSSON, sketchpad, 1920/30's, by the artist's own hand inscribed GAN with blue colour pencil on the cover.
Sketchpad with fifteen perforated sheets (thirty pages) comprising in total twenty-six varying compositions executed in pencil on paper. Motifs depicting, amongst others: cubist compositions, abstract compositions, surrealist compositions and a study of an athlete. Enclosed four loose sheets with studies in pencil (three) and colour pencil (one) depicting abstract compositions (three) and composition with rugby players (one). Outer measurements circa 12.5 x 20.5 cm.
Minor wear. Minor stains. Yellowed. Creases. Handling creases. Unknown number of perforated pages torn out/missing.
Provenance
Managing director of Svensk-Franska Konstgalleriet, Stockholm, Harry Runnqvist.
Managing director of Galerie Bonnier, Geneva and Svensk-Franska Konstgalleriet, Stockholm, Jan Runnqvist, Ph. D. (by descent from the above mentioned, his father).
Subsequently by descent.
More information
On display at Arsenalsgatan 2.
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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