John-E Franzén
Covered by droit de suite
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'Flicka med gula armar'
Signed John-E Franzén and dated 1963. Canvas 124 x 90 cm.
Provenance
Acquired directly from the artist.
Ian Hellström Collection.
Bukowskis, Stockholm, Contemporary Art & Design 570, November 2012, lot no. 253.
Private Collection, Stockholm.
Exhibitions
Göteborgs Konstmuseum, "John-e Franzén", 11 February - 2 April 1978, cat. no 14.
Jönköpings Läns Museum, ”John-E Franzén - fyra decennier”, 1 June – 18 August 1996, cat. no 3.
Lunds Konsthall, ”John-E Franzén - fyra decennier”, 31 August – 13 October 1996, cat. no 3.
Konstmuseet, Örebro Läns Museum, ”John-E Franzén - fyra decennier”, 26 October 1996 – 6 January 1997, cat. no 3.
Östergötlands Länsmuseum, Linköping, ”John-E Franzén - fyra decennier”, 19 January – 2 March 1997, cat. no 3.
Bohusläns Museum, Uddevalla, ”John-E Franzén - fyra decennier”, 8 March – 13 April 1997, cat. no 3.
Konstakademien, Stockholm, ”John-E Franzén - fyra decennier”, 19 April – 19 May 1997, cat. no 3.
Aguélimuseet, Sala, "Ur Ian Hellströms konst och konstsamling", 12 June - 28 August 2004.
Literature
Ulf Linde och Douglas Feuk, " John-E Franzén", 1996, reproduced full page in colour page 22.
More information
On 4 April 1964, John-E Franzén made his debut on the gallery scene. It took place at Galleri Surbrunn in Stockholm with the exhibition "Just nu" together with fellow artists Ulf Wahlberg, Göran Östergren, Ian Hellström and Lars Hillersberg. Starting in 1963, Franzén had experimented with various motifs inspired by American pop art and popular culture. Franzén was fascinated early on by young Californian subcultures, where cars were converted into custom cars or hot rods and motorcycles into choppers. Just a few years after painting 'Flicka med gula armar' (Girl with Yellow Arms), he left for the United States, where he lived and worked from 1966-68.
His debut exhibition included the well-known painting 'Sanningen om Texas Rose I'. Already at this time, Franzén worked in series where the same motif was repeated in several different variations with slight changes in expression and technique. Franzén had made four variations of the motif, including one entitled "Viva Las Vegas", executed in 1963, when the inspiration for the paintings actually came from a poster for the film "Viva Las Vegas" starring a 28-year-old Elvis Presley and the beautiful Ann-Margret. The auction's painting, 'Flicka med gula armar' also exists in another version from 1964, namely 'Flicka med gula strumpor' (Girl with Yellow Stockings), a simpler and much smaller sketch with acrylic and pencil on paper.
Franzén's series of female motifs is as close as one can get to Swedish pop painting and reflects the time when they were created both in terms of choice of motif and technique. The works are both depictively realistic and fluidly painterly, something that characterises Franzén's paintings of women from the 1960s. Unlike much of pop art, Franzén's painting has a strong sensuality, as well as a sensitivity and softness that exudes care and humility, whether the subject is an erotically posing woman or a polished motorbike in a deserted backyard.
In connection with the travelling exhibition "Ung Generation", Franzén made headlines in the newspapers when some people considered his depictions of women to be too challenging. The artist himself stated in an interview with Aftonbladet on 2 February 1965 that: "Erotic painting has old traditions. I regard my paintings as a tribute to something I find beautiful'.
'Flicka med gula armar' is a rare representative of a revolutionary time, both in the world of art and in the artist's life, and its rich exhibition history testifies to its central place in the artist's production.