There is something remarkable about Åke Göransson's artistic career; it is constantly being rediscovered! This was the case when the Swedish Travelling Exhibitions held a comprehensive exhibition in 1978, at Millesgården in 1992, at the Gothenburg Museum of Art and Prince Eugen's Waldemarsudde in 2003, coinciding with the centenary of his birth and the sixtieth anniversary of his death, and most recently when Göransson's extraordinary artistry was brought to light with an exhibition at Liljevalchs konsthall in Stockholm titled "The Comfort of Colour" in 2022-2023, along with a film by Pontus Hjortén called "Life is Short, Art is Long." Both Göransson's tragic and brief life and his peculiar painting have created a myth that continues to fascinate.

After working as an apprentice in a barbershop from the age of 13, lathering chins from eight in the morning until nine in the evening, he eventually became a qualified barber in his hometown of Gothenburg. In 1923, he spent a year in Dals-Ed with the only barber in the tourist town, Gustafsson, who also became his friend and model. In the small community, Åke met the only love of his life and mother of his children, Inga Andersson. Alongside his arduous work, he studied correspondence courses in drawing and painting. In 1924, he became a part-time student at Valand and joined the young artists who gathered around their teacher Tor Bjurström. After a brief period of joy and belonging with other artists, signs of mental illness began to emerge. From 1932 onwards, he barely went outside and took refuge in his mother's flat in Landala, where the most remarkable and intense artworks were created. In 1937, he was admitted to Lillhagen, Gothenburg's new mental hospital. He was in poor condition, both mentally and physically, weighing only 48 kilos and suffering from tuberculosis in his lungs and fully developed schizophrenia. Åke Göransson remained at Lillhagen for five years before tuberculosis took his life.

Göransson's artistic career would likely have sunk into obscurity had it not been for Arne Stubelius's spontaneous visit to Göransson's mother, Hanna, one summer day in 1940. Stubelius was working on a monograph about Ivan Ivarson and wanted to verify some facts. By chance, he asked if there were any works by Göransson left in the home. After some complications, his mother asked him to rise from the kitchen sofa, and they lifted the lid. There lay a dense collection of paintings, rolled up, some overpainted and stuck together. This marked the beginning of Åke Göransson's artistic legacy finally being brought to light. Through purchases, Gösta Stenman facilitated the rescue of the works. They were restored, mounted on panels, and framed. The exhibition at Modern Art in Domestic Environment on Strandvägen in Stockholm in 1941 was very well received and marked the beginning of significant attention for Göransson's artistry.

While the Gothenburg Colourists are associated with explosions of colour, Åke Göransson stands out as an exception within that group of artists. His presence at Valand's painting school was at times very sporadic, as his meagre financial situation forced him to work part-time as a barber's assistant, and he was also somewhat of a recluse. Göransson's early, small landscape paintings in muted colour palettes are primarily considered inspired by Cézanne and to some extent Aguéli. However, he soon found a very personal style where the colours green and violet, seen in a luminous colour haze, played a significant role. Erling Ärlingsson recounts how his friend laid out the colours on the palette based on careful theoretical speculations: "He had only light cadmium yellow, vermilion, emerald green, ultramarine blue, and zinc white on his palette. Occasionally, he likely added gold ochre. Three of the first four plus white, mixed in various proportions, always recurred in all the colour areas that together built up the model. He started from the premise that yellow was the highest warmth and blue the greatest cold. I remember that Schiöler and especially Magnusson and I admired his consistent technique in laying out the model." (Arne Stubelius "Åke Göransson", p. 32).

The auction's painting "Street, Blue House, Yellow House" was created during the years 1932-33 when Göransson painted a series of Gothenburg streets. Here we encounter the colour haze and the muted colour palette, which in its parts shines with vermilion and ochre set against the ultramarine building masses – a declaration of love for his own colour poetry and for his hometown of Gothenburg. Everything becomes crumbling, sliding, and at the same time perfectly balanced colour blocks, flooded and internally illuminated by the light that only Göransson could conjure.