Lennart Rodhe

Lennart Rodhe traveled to Italy in 1953, and after visiting Rome, he arrived in Capri in January of the following year. In his book about the artist, Thomas Millroth described how Rodhe developed his new theme in Italy - the blocks: "He had originally intended to sketch from nature, but he had bad luck with the weather. It rained all day, and there were only breaks in the rain at night. That's when he could go out and sketch the houses, streets, and stairs in moonlight. The lines of the objects were in shadow and not visible, but he wanted to sketch in a way that conveyed the feeling. He filled in the dark areas so that the white areas gained volume. This way, he rediscovered a simple principle, as one can see, for example, on marble floors, where the rhomboid tiles are arranged to create a spatial pattern: cubes are formed, which can suddenly tip over, so what was just seen as the top of one cube suddenly becomes the bottom of another."

Lennart Rodhe further developed this 'block theme' into color paintings, which became the pinnacle of his concrete art. The titles for the paintings were carefully chosen, but they were assigned after the paintings were completed. "Janus Study" is an exquisite example from this significant period in Lennart Rodhe's production.