"Bubu"
Signed Jockum and dated 12. Collage, watercolour, pencil on Japan 64 x 203 cm. Including frame 82,5 x 215 cm.
David Zwirner, New York.
Collection François Meyer, Lausanne, Schweiz. Acquired from the above 2012.
Sothebys, Paris, "Collection François Meyer : A Colorful Passion", 26 September 2023, lot 25.
Private Collection, Sweden. Acquired from the above.
Marc Donnadieu (ed.), "Jockum Nordström: All I Have Learned and Forgotten Again", 2013, illustrated p.52-53.
Jockum Nordström is an artist who constantly plays with the boundaries between fantasy and reality. His work, through drawings, collages and paintings, contains a world of its own where every line and gesture has its function and meaning. There is a sense of both playfulness and seriousness in his work, where the naïve and the surreal meet, and where his sensual materials - water tones, organic shapes and flows of colour - draw the viewer into a dreamlike world of stories.
In the auction's work Bubu, we get a direct insight into Jockum Nordström's universe. The title Bubu is a reminder of the rebellious spirit of Dadaism, and the two open coffins in the work raise a question: Have the figures escaped from their coffins, or are they on their way there? This mystery is characteristic of Nordström's art, where nothing is entirely predictable and the narrative constantly changes depending on the viewer's eyes.
Jockum Nordström is a master at balancing the childlike and the adult, the supernatural and the mundane. His drawings and paintings, with their muted colours and tactile materials, offer a sense of intimacy, while at the same time telling a larger, more universal story.
Jockum Nordström, born 1963 in Stockholm, is a prominent Swedish contemporary artist known for his unique blend of sculpture, collage, painting and drawing. He studied at Konstfack in Stockholm where he developed his signature style, which has been influenced by a wide range of historical and contemporary artists, including Lucas Cranach the Elder, James Ensor and Nils Nilsson-Skum. Nordström has had numerous international and national exhibitions, and his work is in the collections of several prestigious institutions worldwide, including the Museum of Modern Art (New York), the Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris), the Hammer Museum (Los Angeles) and the Moderna Museet (Stockholm).