Albert Johansson began around 1960 to use Santa masks stacked on top of each other, freed from beards and hats and staring lifelessly at the viewer. At first glance, the masks seem identical, but upon closer inspection, one finds small variations in their expressions. His monochromatic white compositions were already developing in the 1950s, to such an extent that he earned the epithet "the white painter" in connection with the breakthrough exhibition at Sturegalleriet in 1958. He himself writes: "White - what does white stand for? White for the known /.../. White for untested possibilities. White is also the colour of meditation. The inward orientation opens untested areas in the self, resetting it (...) in relation to the outside world."