"Vita ränder"
Signed S. Jonson and dated -31. Canvas, 51 x 51 cm.
Yngve and Martha Dillberg, acquired directly from the artist.
Thence by descent to the present owner.
Liljevalchs Konsthall, Stockholm, "Halmstadgruppen 60 år", 1989,
cat. no. 90A.
”Konst i svenska hem”, vol. 2, listed p. 295 in
collection 453: ”Postmästare Yngve Dillberg, Stortorget 14, Ystad".
Sven Jonson worked with purely abstract motifs during the years around 1930, and works from this period are relatively rare in his production. This was an eventful time for Jonson and his artist friends in the newly established Halmstad group. They received several fine exhibition offers - from Halmstad, Lund, and Gothenburg - and of course "Art Concret," Otto G. Carlsund's exhibition of French and Swedish concretists at the Stockholm Exhibition in 1930.
Painting during this period was generally post-cubist and plane-geometric, but soon the group would fully embrace surrealism. Jonson painted abstractly, and several of his works from this year are held in a blue color scheme similar to the painting at auction. Jonson would repeatedly return to this chromatic expression and thereby join to some extent the ranks of Swedish "blue painters." These blue compositions from the years around 1930 are rare on auction.
With references to Amedée Ozenfant's purist "pré-formes" - the original forms taken from nature - Sven Jonson composed the elegant painting titled "Vita ränder" (White stripes) in 1931, which is up for auction.