Lena Cronqvist
Covered by droit de suite
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"Skvallerbytta III"
Signed LC and numbered 1/5. Executed 1993-94. Foundry mark H. Bergman. Patinated bronze. Height 31 cm, width 30.5 cm and depth 29.5 cm.
Literature
"Lena Cronqvist - Skulpturer 1993-1995", illustrated full page p. 67.
More information
In his essay ‘Lena Cronqvist och det absolut nödvändiga’, SAK 2003, Mårten Castenfors describes the artist's paintings in the 1990s as painterly representations of small figures. They are young girls grimacing in a world of growing pains, feigned innocence and childish cruelty. ‘The girls of the 1990s stubbornly turn and twist dolls and cats: they bathe, drown, strangle and bathe with the same sad pleasure.’
The girls, with their defiant and serious demeanour, seem to be placed in an adultless environment where their seemingly innocent play is charged with dark undertones. At the same time as the girls become more and more disfigured in painting, the motifs also find their three-dimensional form in Cronqvist's sculptures of terracotta and bronze. On both large and small scales, the small figures exude psychological credibility, independence and strength. They rule and reign over their own world, be it a stone, a tub or water.
The painting ‘Skvallerbytta’ in tempera and oil on canvas is dated 1991 (illustrated full page p. 160 in ‘Lena Cronqvist, Målningar 1964-1994’, Galleri Lars Boman, Stockholm, 1994). The motif ‘Tattletale’ exists as a sculpture in three versions executed in 1993-94, of which the auction's sculpture is version III.
Artist
Lena Cronqvist was one of Sweden’s most significant and influential artists, with a career spanning more than five decades. Born in Karlstad and educated at the Bristol School of Art in England as well as the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm, she developed a style of painting where technical precision met intense emotional depth. Through her raw and emotionally charged imagery, she explored the paradoxes of motherhood, the shadows of childhood, and the relentless flow of time. Inspired by modernism and Edvard Munch, she transformed the personal into universal stories filled with deep psychological presence and power. As a painter, printmaker, and sculptor, she moved effortlessly between artistic forms, with each work marked by strong emotion and meticulous craftsmanship. Her interpretation of Jan van Eyck’s "The Arnolfini Portrait" in "Trolovningen"(1974/75) became a milestone when it sold at Bukowski's auction Vår Contemporary 2016 for over 11 million SEK - the highest amount ever paid for a work by a living Swedish artist at the time. Lena Cronqvist’s art is a bold and powerful voice that continues to move, challenge, and inspire. Her legacy lives on - boundless and timeless - reminding us of art’s ability to reach into the depths of the human experience.
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