Anniversary auctions at Bukowskis presenting Ola Billgren
Bukowskis presents "Townscape" by Ola Billgren on the autumn anniversary auction Contemporary Art & Design.
During the period when Ola Billgren (1940-2001) was active he became the Swedish artist that first, and most clearly, defined the relationship between art as a language on the one hand and reality on the other. He has been called both a theoretician and a sensualist. He was able to capture history and contemporary life in a single image.
In the 1980s, after the photorealistic and experimental period of the 60s and 70s, romantic painting on large canvases and in impressionistic colours overwhelmed him.
According to the works' titles, it was large townscapes that were emerging from deep within the colours. We see the city as an abstraction or as a dream, only alluded to in a lingering feeling or atmosphere. The perspective is remote, overhead, viewed from a descending aeroplane that has just emerged from a cloud.
It is a way of painting that, like music, evokes a specific feeling for a given duration and which allows the viewer/listener to ascribe their own images, passions and dreams to it. The town and the landscape become increasingly distinct and powerful to the viewer, after which the process continues to unfold. The eye’s limited visual field makes it impossible for the gaze to pierce through the paint the way emotions can – the language of art opening alternative ways into painting and the image, beyond the capabilities of sight.
The white town entices us from behind its white veils.
Monica Nieckels
When is the viewing and auction?
Contemporary Art & Design
Viewing: 5 – 9 November, Berzelii Park 1, Stockholm
Open: Mon–Fri 11 AM – 6 PM, Sat – Sun 11 AM – 5 PM
Auction: 10 November, starts at 11 am, Arsenalsgatan 2, Stockholm
Catalogue online from 28 October
Additional work from Ola Billgren to be sold at Contemporary Art & Design
From the left; Skugga, Getting Dark and Diana
When is the viewing and auction?
Contemporary Art & Design
Viewing: 5 – 9 November, Berzelii Park 1, Stockholm
Open: Mon–Fri 11 AM – 6 PM, Sat – Sun 11 AM – 5 PM
Auction: 10 November, starts at 11 am, Arsenalsgatan 2, Stockholm
Catalogue online from 28 October
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