New season – New highlights: Jonglören by Erik Olson
Erik Olson ”Jonglören”
At Léger's academy, Erik Olson got to know Otto G. Carlsund, who presented the two young Swedes to Paris's nightlife and places where the avant-garde met, such as the Dôme, the Rotonde and later La Coupole. Erik feels like he is in paradise and takes in the new winds blowing in Paris, the Mecca of avant-garde art. Despite having trouble raising money, he not only manages to apprentice himself to the master Léger but as soon as the opportunity arises, he makes study trips around Europe, eagerly studying everything from Giotto and Cimabue to the abstract paintings of Kandinsky.

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“Jonglören” is one of Erik Olson’s strongest Constructivist compositions and is part of a series of works that the artist created in 1927–28.

Eventually, the money runs out, and Erik is forced to return to Sweden to raise funds. By 1927 he is back in Paris and, like the seeker he is, he continues exploring the Parisian art scene. He now encounters more pure tendencies with artists such as Ozenfant, Mondrian and Christian Berg. Among his artist friends from Halmstad, Erik Olson is the one who stands out internationally. Not only was Erik the one Léger chose as one of his collaborators, but he was also the only Swedish and Scandinavian to be invited to exhibit at the exhibition Mondrian, de Stijl and their impact at the Marlborough Gallery in New York in 1964. Erik Olson exhibited regularly with Otto G. Carlsund and Christian Berg in Paris. In November 1928, the trio exhibited in Gothenburg together with GAN. Art historian and GAN connoisseur Jan Torsten Ahlstrand wrote the following about this exhibition in SDS in 1986: ”It was no coincidence that GAN chose Christian Berg, Otto G. Carlsund, and Erik Olson as co-exhibitors in Gothenburg's Konsthall in 1928 - the foremost in the Swedish avant-garde of that time.”

The work will be sold at this spring’s Modern Art + Design on May 16th.
Viewing May 11th – 15th, Berzelii Park 1, Stockholm.
Auction May 16th – 17th, Arsenalsgatan 2, Stockholm.
Read about the auction
Consignments are underway Sell your art at the highest price
