“…The girl’s time – this very brief existence between two periods at the beginning of life, in the very narrow land that will, very soon, sink at the horizon.”

The words are those of Göran Tunström, the author who was Lena Cronqvist’s life partner. They capture a thematic that the painter and sculptor Cronqvist depicted time and again. Her passing nearly a year ago marks the loss of one of Sweden’s most prominent and interesting artists. With a distinctive artistic confidence, great intimacy, and sensual immediacy, she portrayed her experiences of her own childhood, motherhood, and family. The childhood has particularly been a strong theme that Lena Cronqvist has explored in her works in both painting and sculpture.

In the 1990s, Lena Cronqvist began to seriously explore sculpture as a form of expression, and over the past decade, she has increasingly emerged as one of the most fascinating sculptors of our time. The early sculptures, created among other places during stays in New York with her husband Göran Tunström, were small in scale. From there, the development has progressed towards larger bronze sculptures, still with the same theme; children and, above all, young girls.

The sculpture presented in the auction is formed by a young figure sitting in a large bowl. The artist often places her figures in water – what can simultaneously be perceived as safe and calming, or a place for purification and play, can just as quickly transform into something unsafe and even dangerous. Upright and with a steady gaze, the presence is palpable.

Lena Cronqvist’s sculptures can be found in many public collections, including; “Hand i Hand,” which is located in the park of the Rackstad Museum in Arvika, “Flicka i balja” in Trefaldighetsallén in Norre Katts park in Halmstad, and “Flicka som räcker ut tungan” outside the Stockholm City Art Office. The municipality of Karlstad, Lena Cronqvist’s birthplace, acquired “Två flickor”, which was placed in Spegeldammen in front of the Värmland Museum. The sculpture was part of the museum park’s large and well-attended Cronqvist exhibition in 2010. “Flicka i balja” was purchased by Sven-Harry Karlsson’s Konstmuseum in 2010 and can be seen at Vasaparken in Stockholm. Furthermore, the sculpture group “Fem flickor” is located at Södermalmstorg.