The specialist's choice – Amanda Wahrgren lists her favourites from Modern Art + Design

Erik Olson ”Jonglören”

This spring's auction features a wide range fantastic and early works by members of the Halmstad Group. My favourite is "Jonglören" by Erik Olson, painted in 1928. The artwork has never been available for sale before and comes from the collection of Yngve and Martha Dillberg in Halmstad, the couple who were friends and patrons of Erik and the other members of the Halmstad Group. "Jonglören" is one of Erik Olson's strongest constructivist compositions, created in Paris between 1927 and 28. It is playful and elegant, and the choice of subject and the refined interplay of colours uplifts my spirits.

To the work

Gudrun Åhlberg, Imagistic portrait

Gudrun Åhlberg's artistic career is highly fascinating. As the only woman, she belonged to the avant-garde group "The Imaginists", an artist collective in Malmö formed by CO Hultén, Max Walter Svanberg, and Anders Österlin from 1945 to 1956. The art of the Imaginists incorporates elements of imaginative surrealism, and their visualized dream fantasies stem from the subconscious. The style is painterly, expressive and poetically ambiguous, breaking away from earlier surrealism and aligning more with the informal art movement that gained increasing popularity after the end of World War II. Åhlberg's dual self-portraits are refined and intriguing, featuring a cool blue-pink palette. Paintings by her are rarely found at auctions.

Karel Appel, ”Femme a la pipe”

Karel Appel was a member of the avant-garde artist collective CoBrA group, which advocated and worked with spontaneous expressionism. Their abstract features represented a break from the more formal, geometric abstract painting that was typical of the time. CoBrA members operated under the theory that art was directly related to the human psyche and the artist's state of mind. In the auctions painting "Femme a la pipe," from 1974, Appel has painted a playful figure smoking a pipe. As is often the case in Appel's art, the colours are thick, and the colour palette is refined and daring. In "Femme a la pipe," the artist has created a humorous and energetic painting that is easy to be fascinated by.