Hilding Linnqvist
HILDING LINNQVIST, signed with monogram, executed around 1953, oil on canvas.
"Påsk" (Easter). 128 x 93 cm.
Surface dirt, slightly worn along the edges.
Exhibitions
Kunstnerernes Hus, Oslo, February 1954, no. 62.
Liljevalchs Konsthall, Stockholm, exhibition no. 243, 1957.
Moderna Museet, Stockholm, 26 December 1986 - 22 February 1987, no. 78.
Göteborgs konstmuseum (Gothenburg Art Museum), Sweden, 7 March - 10 May 1987, no. 78.
More information
Konstkritikern Erik Blomberg har kallat Hilding Linnqvist för "blomstertorgets målare". Hilding Linnqvist älskade blommor, ofta stiger deras lysande färger fram mot en mörkare, men intensiv bakgrund. Under hela sitt konstnärsliv återkommer han till blommorna, och glädjen över deras färgprakt blir till en linnéansk blomranka som snirklar sig igenom hans stora produktion. Förkärleken till det närliggande, vaser, blommor, snäckor och gamla tennfat gav hans pensel inspiration och lockade honom att på ett mästerligt sätt återge deras stoffer. Linnqvist såg det lilla och var lyhörd för naturens detaljer runt omkring honom, varje enskild blomma får ett existensberättigande.
Artist
Hilding Linnqvist is one of Sweden's most important naïve painters and became established and known early on for his colourful compositions. Linnqvist was a key figure in lyrical naivism in Sweden, with a style of painting that departed from the technical perfection he had been trained in. Several Swedish artists joined this innovative direction for the time. After studying at the Technical School and the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts, he was inspired by Edward Munch and Ernst Josephson's malaise art, which led him towards a freer and more uninhibited style of painting. During the 1920s, Linnqvist travelled abroad several times and his colours became brighter and his subjects more detailed.
He later painted coastal scenes and portraits, among other things. By the early 1940s, Hilding Linnqvist was an established and well-travelled artist, as well as a professor at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in 1939-1941 and the subject of a major exhibition there in 1940.