The art collector has become a mythical figure in our time
The art collector has become a mythical figure in our time. There are many who want to add this title to their CV, but few are privileged to have the knowledge and passion to create a significant and important collection.
The private collection, presented at Bukowskis on September 23 – 26. may at first glance seem broad and diverse. The collection comprises mainly Swedish artists, belonging to different movements and representing different periods of Swedish art history. In this collection, Stockholm does not take the role of the cultural capital of Sweden. The city of Malmö takes on a prominent position, through a focused selection of works by the imagists CO Hultén and Max Walter Svanberg. The surrealists of Gothenburg are represented by Endre Nemes. Important works of each of these three artists have been added to the collection, providing depth and significance. Stockholm is represented by a strange mix of artists where Bror Hjorth and Eric Grate appear as a grand old men in their own right, while Rune Jansson, Evert Lundquist, Lage Lindell are part of a younger movement encompassing classicism, concretism and Arte Informale.
The absolute highlight of the collection is not the above-mentioned, but without doubt, the works of Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd, executed in the 1950s and the 1960s. The multifaceted oeuvre of Reuterswärd mirrors the development of post-war art, from Surrealism to Arte Informale. Foremost, you meet the Reuterswärd, the conceptual artist, who emerges as the playfully exploring artist taking on the role as the first post-modernist.
An odd figure is James Coignard, the only international artist who stands out in the collection. The inclusion of works by Coignard complements the selection in an excellent way, adding primitivism and the "art brut" approach that traditionally has not gained the same dignity in Sweden as in France.
The collection, characterized by a defined time span, is disrupted by the inclusion of the Icelandic pop artist Erro, but also by Max Book, belonging to a different generation of artists. The two became temporary acquaintances that never developed in depth in the collection. However, they suggest a curiosity, in the collector, about new imagery in art that, however, stops at these two odd attempts.
Bo Nilsson, September 2021