Bengt Lindström

BENGT LINDSTRÖM (Sweden, 1925-2008).
Untitled.
Lithograph "avant la lettre", copy H.C.
Lithograph of the poster for an exhibition of the artist's work at the Sala Gaspar in Barcelona, 1988.
Signed, dedicated and justified by hand.
Measurements: 52 x 44 cm.
Lindström was one of Sweden's best-known contemporary artists with a characteristic, personal style in which he fused a multitude of colours, often including figurative elements that were sometimes distorted. He began his development in artistic Stockholm, and later moved to Copenhagen, Chicago and Paris. His experiences helped him to develop his own style. A unique style that would make him recognised all over the world. Stylistically Bengt's early years as an artist reveal a strong influence of the local Norrland artists. Although he once moved to Paris after his short stay at the College of Arts, Crafts & Design, Bengt studied with Isaac Grünewald in Stockholm for a year. Grünewald was one of the pioneers of Swedish modernism and had studied with influential artists such as Matisse. Bengt found inspiration in this new aesthetic and began to develop his style from these premises. He abandoned the Norrland landscape motifs and tried to develop a modern style. During this period, he was strongly inspired by Picasso, Matisse and other leading artists in the avant-garde movement. When the Second World War ended, Bengt studied in Copenhagen at the Academy of Art under Aksel Jørgensen during 1945-1946. There he first experienced contemporary art through the basic expressions and myths of what later became the COBRA movement. He then crossed the Atlantic to Chicago, where the Art Institute of Chicago provided new insights through the abstract expressionism of Pollock and De Kooning. But it was Paris that attracted him, as Paris once again became the international centre of arts and culture. After spending a year in Chicago, the dream of France became a reality. In the summer of 1947, Bengt arrived in Paris with nothing but a few dollars he had won in late-night card games with other artists and shady characters from the Chicago underworld. The first few years in Paris were difficult although Bengt was extremely productive but sold almost nothing. During this time, under the guidance of his teachers André Lhote and Fernand Léger, Bengt experimented with a wide variety of techniques. In the mid-1950s, collage was the dominant technique; he also tried working in mosaics for a year, before switching completely to silkscreen the next year. He was forced to paint in black and white during this period because he could not afford to buy colours. If he unexpectedly got hold of some colours, he would mix them with leftover powder paint to stretch them. The turning point came in the late 1950s, when a British art dealer who travelled to Paris in search of "unusual" artists bought several of his paintings. With the money from this first sale, Bengt Lindström was finally able to paint the way he wanted to. Thick layers of yellow, red, green and blue replaced black and white; and because of his increasingly strong brushstrokes, the paintings took on a new dimension. The abstract and expressionistic quality of his images became more obvious. The landscape paintings gradually disappeared, replaced by the distorted, mask-like faces and, later, the Nordic mythology that has characterised his art ever since. Abandoning correct anatomy and representation and concentrating instead on colour and texture, Bengt thus found his way to articulate the primitive and violent qualities he had been searching for in the mountains and forests of the north of Europe.