Rolf Hanson

Rolf Hanson often works in series or themes, approaching a motif or a form from different angles and in various ways. The motifs, which range from figurative to abstract, are not the primary focus but serve more as a starting point for exploring the act of painting itself and “emptying out the motif” in the studio. In Hanson’s most well-known series 'Runtom hus' and 'Runtom trappa*, repetition is part of the artistic process. The perspective and colour palette are varied incessantly, and abstraction is sometimes allowed to take precedence over the figurative.

The series 'Runtom hus' was created in the mid-1990s in connection with an exhibition at Rooseum in Malmö. Hanson draws from his own house, a vicarage on Mörkö island outside Stockholm. For many years, the artist would explore the subject of the house on Mörkö in interplay with the surrounding nature. The building sometimes appears as an imposing high-society villa and at other times as a haunted house. What seems to captivate the artist over time is the geometric representation of the building’s silhouette. The shape of the vicarage is abstracted into a series of simplified two-dimensional forms of quadrilaterals set against an explosion of colour.

The glowing abstract expressionism overwhelms the viewer. In the current work, the artist has allowed the house’s façade to recede into the picture plane. In the foreground, nature dominates, depicted in areas of green, yellow, and ochre that transitions into vibrant brushstrokes of purple and thunder-blue against a glowing sky in orange. The warm tones distinguish the artist from his contemporary international artist colleagues, who often work in a more muted and minimalist colour palette.

In connection with Rolf Hanson’s creation of the graphic series 'Runtom hus och trappor' in 2011, he executed a number of new paintings on this theme. In the series, Rolf Hanson returns to the house and to the Swedish nature and its sensuality, which he depicts with full painterly force.