Carl Johan De Geer
Covered by droit de suite
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"Skända flaggan"
Signed Carl Johan De Geer and numbered 94/99. Lithograph in colours, sheet size 91 x 60 cm.
More information
At the end of the 1960s De Geer worked in the editorial office for the left-wing political satirical magazine PUSS. At that time he exhibited, together with his then wife Marie-Louise Ekman, at the legendary Gallery Karlsson in Stockholm. This exhibition was later referred to as “The uproar at Karlsson’s”. Carl Johan showed politically provocative prints with titles like "Skända flaggan" (Desecrate the flag), "Vägra vapen" (No to weapons) och "USA mördare" (USA murderer).
After receiving a report of seditious art, the police confiscated the prints which were destroyed, only a few examples were saved. The first edition of “Skända flaggan” is included in the collections of Nationalmuseum, the Police museum in Sweden and in a few private collections.
Carl Johan De Geer was born 1938 in Montreal, Canada and lives in Stockholm since 1951. He is educated at Konstfack (University of Art) in Stockholm 1959-1963, graphic design. Carl Johan De Geer was a founding member of the textile design group “10-gruppen”. Together with Håkan Alexandersson he had a film production company for 20 years which, among others, produced the legendary childrens show “Tårtan”. Since the beginning of the 1960s Carl Johan De Geer has been a prominent person in Swedish cultural life.
Artist
Carl Johan De Geer was a Swedish painter, designer, photographer, and author. He studied from 1959-62 at Konstfack. He is one of the leading representatives of the boundary-crossing artists of the 1960s. Utilising the magazine “Puss” as his platform, De Geer and others satirically critiqued society and its representatives in a provocative style. In their exhibitions, which often take the form of entire scenographies, he works with all art forms. He has designed textile patterns, created paintings featuring kitsch and memories, made films, and written novels that blend modernism with pop culture.
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