The self-taught Ola Billgren found success in the mid-60s with his hyper-real style, inspired by movies, literature and photography, and with names such as Antonioni, Robbe-Grillet and the British photographer Bill Brandt as his role models. He also knew his art history and was influenced by old masters such as Titian, Rembrandt, Delacroix and Munch. Billgren’s painting has been compared to Dutch 17th century masters like, for example, Pieter de Hooch and Vermeer and w e find in his work the same sincerity, intimacy and stillness.
Billgren’s breakthrough came at Galleri Karlsson in Stockholm in 1966. In 1967 he exhibited under the title Här och nu [Here and Now] at Gävle museum. At this stage photorealism had become his battleground as he had broken off with modernism – no more art for art’s sake. “Everyone who looks at my paintings should get something from them”. With his painting he wanted to find “the unmade image”, in contradiction to the current trends in the arts of that time. The painting in the auction, Himmel [Sky], dated 1973, comes from an important period in the artist’s oeuvre, when many of his most significant works were executed. Billgren worked, like a baroque master, with the dramatic play between light and shade, whilst still clearly situating his imagery in a contemporary moment.