Bo Swenson

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This themed auction presents a selection of works by Bo Swenson (1932–2022), a significant Swedish modernist painter. Over more than six decades, he developed a distinctive visual language in which nature, colour, movement and memory converge. Swenson studied at the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm from 1958 to 1963 and made his debut in 1963 at Galerie Blanche in Stockholm. From an early stage, the landscape became a central point of departure, but for Swenson the aim was less to depict a specific place than to capture a fleeting impression. Trees, water, shorelines and vegetation appear as fragments, with the subject dissolving and re-emerging through colour, rhythm and brushwork.

A particularly important place in Swenson’s artistic practice was his studio in Hagaparken, where he was given access to a workspace around 1960 and continued to work for most of his life. The park’s avenues, trees, water and open landscapes recurred throughout his painting. At the same time, the tangible landscape became more than a subject; through memory and artistic transformation, it evolved into a personal visual world. Swenson’s paintings often exist somewhere between recognition and abstraction. Strong, vivid colours, particularly intense shades of red, meet greens, blues and earthy tones, while brushstrokes and displaced forms create a sense of constant movement.

Swenson was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts in 1992 and was awarded the Academy’s Prize in 2003. His work has continued to receive attention following his death, including through the memorial exhibition Vadställen at the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm in 2023. Among the works presented was the auction’s Allé VII, a significant example of Swenson’s painting, in which the forms of the landscape meet his characteristic use of colour and movement. In Bo Swenson’s work, the landscape is never a fixed representation, but something that passes through memory, is transformed by colour, and brought to life through movement.

Viewing: September 1–4, Berzelii Park 1, Stockholm
Open: 11 AM – 5 PM