Peter Dahl

Peter Dahl studied at the Swedish Royal Institute of Art for Lennart Rodhe. However, while Rodhe represented abstract contemporary art, Dahl worked within a chromatic and figurative tradition. His art garnered attention early on, particularly when his exhibition in Gothenburg in 1970 generated publicity. Dahl exhibited a series of paintings depicting dream scenes that were said to represent Princess Sibylla revealing her gender to a man, leading to the confiscation of the works by the police.

In 1975, Peter Dahl became a professor at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm. He published the books "The Basics of Figure Drawing," "O Mecaenas," and "The History of Caribania." The Händer Gallery opened with a series of his portraits as he simultaneously exhibited at Svenska Bilder under the very Swedish concept of the "EPA Bar". In the 1980s, there was the important exhibition of his interpretations of Bellman's work, marking a popular breakthrough. Peter Dahl has been described as a literary painter and a painterly author. He is painterly in his light touch, flowing brushwork, and warm color palette. Literary in that he tells a story or relates to a reality we can recognize. His paintings are snapshots with unreserved openness, combined with keen observational skills. He tells a story as he paints and paints as he tells a story.

Dahl was one of the artists, like his role model Rembrandt, who painted himself into his compositions. This was especially evident in interiors from the parts of Stockholm's pub world where he was a frequent visitor.

Folke Edwards writes, "At the same time as he painted these works, Peter created a series of pictures in the early 1980s that he called the 'Vino Tinto Gang,' in which he often appeared - alone or doubled - as the main character. The other figures - there were no more - were Elisabeth (the blonde), the artist Lars-Olov Wiberg (Elisabeth's ex-husband), and the Finnish artist Leena Luostarinen: a quartet that often met, drank wine, and sang songs from 'The Threepenny Opera' and Bellman. Judging by the paintings, their wine consumption and bohemian style left little doubt that they felt more affinity with the 'underworld' than the 'upper world.'

Stylistically, we can now note a couple of striking inconsistencies in the paintings that Peter consciously used in his party and drinking scenes. One is that the men consistently appear more flushed and inebriated than the women (as is often the case), and the other is that both men and women are painted with a quick and lively brush - like immediate notations or impressions - while bottles, glasses, cups, plates, decanters, and dishes, in general, are painted with very careful sharp focus. It's as if life is fleeting, but things are enduring - or perhaps it's more of a psychological perspective: that the bottle and the glass in the pub primarily focus our interest. Or perhaps it's as simple as everything is in motion while bottles and other items - as long as the intoxication is moderate - tend to remain relatively steady."
Folke Edwards ("Peter Dahl," Stockholm, 1996, p. 109)