At the Stockholm Exhibition of 1930, Otto G Carlsund organised an exhibition of Post-Cubist art at Restaurant Puck. It featured many influential figures from the Parisian avant-garde, including Piet Mondrian, Theo van Doesburg, Jean Arp and Franciska Clausen, as well as several Swedish modernists. The exhibition was not a commercial success: only three works of art were sold, and the exhibition came to be referred to as the ‘concretist fiasco’.
Today, Concrete Art has been thoroughly reassessed, and concrete works of art appeal to an ever-growing number of art collectors each year.
In 1930, the artist Theo van Doesburg (1883–1931) founded the artists’ association Art Concret, and the term was coined in connection with the publication of a manifesto entitled The Basis of Concrete Art. The concept was later popularised by the artists Josef Albers and Max Bill, who organised the first international exhibition of Concrete Art at the Kunsthalle in Basel in 1944.
Concrete Art refers to abstract, non-representational art of a geometric nature. It is free from associations and symbolic elements, and instead consists of geometric forms that captivate the viewer through their directness.
Several Swedish artists began creating Concrete Art at an early stage and gained international recognition, not least Otto G Carlsund. Other early concretists included Gösta Adrian Nilsson, Erik Olson, Ingegerd Torhamn and Knut Lundström. The movement subsequently expanded to include artists such as Olle Baertling, Pierre Olofsson, Lars Erik Falk, Leida Rives-Elfvén, Harry Booström, Bengt Orup, Einar Lynge-Ahlberg, Inger Ekdahl and Joy Egnel.
Contemporary artists, too, continue to work in the spirit of Concrete Art. Several of them are represented in this collection, including KG Nilson, Kurt Simons, Cajsa Holmstrand, Gunnar Okner and Jan W. Morthenson from Sweden. From the Nordic countries, the collection also includes Outi Ikkala and Vesa Lahtinen from Finland, as well as Mogens Lohmann from Denmark.
The Collection at Lilla Bukowskis
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