Endre Nemes

Endre Nemes was a groundbreaking artist who became a central figure in Swedish modernism. His unique artistic vision merges the real with the unreal, striking a balance between clarity and mystique, where surrealist elements meet profound symbolism and intellectual reflection. In his paintings, humans, architecture, and technology intertwine in dreamlike, often futuristic worlds, where the boundaries of time and space dissolve.

Nemes was born in 1909 in Pécsvárad, Hungary, into a Jewish family that later moved to Czechoslovakia. This turbulent period left a lasting mark on his artistic expression. He began his career as a newspaper illustrator in Prague and early on developed an expressionist style inspired by Edvard Munch and Oskar Kokoschka. As Nazism spread, he was forced to flee—first to Finland and Norway—and in 1938 he arrived in Sweden, where he soon established himself as an artist. He held his first exhibition in Sweden in 1941 and became a Swedish citizen in 1948.

During the 1950s, he also worked as a teacher at Valand Art School in Gothenburg, where he influenced an entire generation of artists.

The work in this auction, the monumental composition Mussel Concert, was begun in 1967 and further developed in 1975 and 1979, a working method typical of Nemes. The painting is an excellent example of his ability to create imaginative universes where past, present, and future converge.

In recent years, interest in Endre Nemes’ oeuvre has grown, particularly in Europe. In 1984, a museum dedicated to his art opened in Pécs, Hungary, and his works are today represented in museums including those in Prague, Bratislava, Philadelphia, Brooklyn, and the Moderna Museet in Stockholm.