GUDMAR OLOVSON A LIFE IN SCULPTURE

Viewing March 2 – 22, Weekdays 11 am–5 pm, Saturday 11 am–4 pm

Auction Online only March 1 – 22

Presenting the skill of an artist like Gudmar Olovson is no easy task but Bukowskis is delighted to accept this honour in homage to this master sculptor. Working closely with Gudmar Olovson’s family, in this retrospective exhibition and accompanying Online only auction, here we seek to celebrate one of Sweden’s foremost sculptors.

It is now five years since Olovson passed away and his rich legacy to posterity will be admired by many generations to come. The exhibition features well-known monumental figures, sensual prints and tender drawings, and, not least, a selection of his psychologically interesting, fine-tuned portrait busts, spanning almost seven decades of creativity.

Gudmar Olovson sculpted in the French classical tradition and his magnificent monumental pieces are found in numerous public spaces around the world, mainly in his two homelands of France and Sweden. He surrounded himself with the most highly skilled casting experts, ensuring that his finished works lived up to his ideas down to the smallest detail.

To the catalogue

View the virtual tour

› Highlight in the auction: Gudmar Olovson, ”Les Deux Arbres (Two trees)”. Bronze, 236 x 85 cm.

All his works of art are imbued with their own unique story, inspired by poetry, places and people, interpreted in Olovson’s utterly personal way, usually in gleaming bronze. Olovson’s sculptures celebrate and reflect love as part of human nature and he won numerous prizes and awards in recognition of his art.

With interest in classical sculpture on the rise in the art world, we are excited to display the work of one of its foremost proponents and extremely proud to have been entrusted with this great honor. The works in this auction are thus part of modern cultural history and the viewing will provide a unique opportunity to see a retrospective exhibition of Gudmar Olovson’s works of art.

Celebrated and admired during his lifetime, Gudmar Olovson’s works were exhibited in more than fifteen solo shows at venues such as the Hôtel de la Monnaie in Paris (2007) and the Château Musée Grimaldi in Cagnes-sur-Mer (2015). His sculptures appeared in some one hundred prestigious salons, where Olovson was often invited as the guest of honor, including Les Artistes Français at the Grand Palais and the very selective Salon des Indépendants. The sculptor’s work was equally successful with gallerists, who presented it in both group and solo shows. The Galerie Vendome, in the rue de la Paix in Paris, was one of the first to show Gudmar Olovson’s work as part of the Groupe des Neuf exhibition (1963). The Kennedy Gallery in New York and the famous Galerie Blanche in Stockholm (1977) soon followed suit. In the early 2000s, among others, the Galerie Malaquais showed his work in Paris, and the Galerie Fahlnaes Konsthandel showed it in Göteborg.