Ola Billgren
Covered by droit de suite
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"Café Window, Venice"
Signed Ola Billgren and dated -99. Oil on canvas, 95 x 128 cm.
Provenance
Galerie Leger, Malmö.
Private Collection.
Exhibitions
Galerie Leger, Malmö, "Målningar, Ola Billgren", 27 November - 21 December 1999.
More information
Billgren created almost monochromatic paintings in the 1990s, where the motif was obscured by thin layers of paint swept across the surface of the canvas. The photographic image remained important as a model and inspiration, but the painterly effects of colour on the canvas gained increasing weight and thus propelled Billgren's painting forward. The work "Café Window, Venice," executed in 1999, is an excellent example of this period in Billgren's artistic career.
- "We took a longer trip to Italy in 1995. We travelled to Pompeii, visited Tivoli and Villa d’Este, among other places. Ola photographed a lot throughout the trip. Once home, he developed the images and let them inspire him in his work with the painting," recounts Anita Nilsson Billgren.
The journey resulted, among other things, in a series of paintings with antiquarian motifs. They testified to the importance of the trip and the significance of the impressions Ola Billgren had brought back to Sweden. Behind the artist's abstract surfaces, classical forms, architectural details, and sculptures emerged.
The painting at auction also connects back to the visit to Italy, a few years earlier. A painting that was initially distinct and realistic has, through the artist's gentle hand, been given a dreamlike and suggestive tone, and the grey hues of paint has been carefully applied to the surface in an unmistakably Billgren manner.
Artist
Ola Billgren was born in 1940 in Copenhagen but based his career in Sweden. Billgren was self-taught, having only been trained by his parents Hans and Grete Billgren. Ola worked within the mediums of graphic art, watercolour, collage, photography, film, and scenography. He was also an author and culture critic. Known for his versatility, Billgren cultivated a relationship between art and reality in his work.
During the 1960s, he transitioned from abstract expressionism to photographic realism. Over time, his paintings evolved into a fusion of abstract and photorealistic styles, resulting in romantic landscapes where he examined the interplay of light and color. Forms dissolved, and colors were reduced to monochrome, single-colored surfaces that were richly worked and varied.
In the late 1980s, he returned to urban environments in large cityscapes, often painted from a high perspective but maintaining the impressionistic approach seen in his landscapes. Ola Billgren's influence on recent decades of art has been significant. His work is represented in institutions such as Musée National d'art Moderne Centre George Pompidou in Paris and Moderna Museet in Stockholm.