Erland Cullberg

”If you look at me and my paintings, I try to generate an adamant noise in color and which sometimes, sometimes can burst into song.” This is how Erland Cullberg described his artistry in the catalogue for his exhibition at Moderna Museet in Stockholm 1986.

Today, Erland Cullberg is seen as a prominent figure for new expressionism, the more figurative, emotional way of painting, that grew stronger after the second world war with an attachment to the Swedish expressionism. Though later on, Cullberg's influences came more from El Greco than Sigrid Hjertén and Isaac Grünewald. Cullberg's painting is more violent and in his aggressive and chaotic color mass' you can find figures which are fighting Cullberg's own struggle with his own self, split during long periods of schizophrenia.

"I like orange, blue and yellow. Yellow is the color of joy, red is strength of malediction. Blue; blue is the dream about the perfection's bliss." – Erland Cullberg.