Gösta Adrian-Nilsson
GÖSTA ADRIAN-NILSSON, sketchpad, 1920/30's, by the artist's own hand inscribed GAN with indian ink on the cover.
Sketchpad with eleven, partly trimmed, sheets (twenty-two pages) comprising in total circa thirty-one varying compositions executed in pencil and indian ink on paper. Motifs depicting, amongst others: cubist compositions (executed on trimmed sheet dated 1932), figure studies, maritime compositions, studies of indians, "folk song" illustrations, street scene with street light and rural scene from the province of Skåne (Scania, in the south of Sweden). Enclosed ten loose sheets with studies in pencil (six) and indian ink (four) on paper and greaseproof paper depicting street scenes, abstract compositions, battleship, tank, canon etc. Outer measurements circa 18.5 x 27 cm.
Minor damages. Uneven wear. Tear/tears. Fold. Creases. Soft handling creases. Trimmed /sheet trimmed/margins trimmed. Time stained. Minor stains. Unknown number of 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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