Maj-Brit Wadell Collection

Maj-Brit Wadell (1931–2025) collected art throughout her working life. As a professor of art history and an art writer, she followed many artistic careers closely. She was a close friend of, among others, Peter Dahl and Lena Cronqvist, and the collection includes works by both of these artists. It also includes works by Berto Marklund, Harald Lindberg and Nils Söderberg.

Maj-Brit was particularly interested in unconventional artistic practices, and one of the more distinctive relationships was with the East German artist Wilhelm Müller (1928–1999). They became friends in the late 1950s and began an extensive correspondence, in which they discussed art in every conceivable respect through letters. This resulted in a considerable number of artworks being sent by post to Maj-Brit, who in this way built up a small collection of his works on paper, now included in the auction collection.

Wilhelm Müller did not achieve major success during his lifetime but has in recent years received renewed attention through exhibitions, including in his home city of Dresden and elsewhere in Germany. He was one of the few artists in former East Germany who devoted themselves to more abstract and non-figurative art. He described his paintings as “constructive exercises” and continually sought to achieve a spontaneous and informal expression in his work.

Maj-Brit Wadell (1931–2025) became the first female professor of art history at the University of Gothenburg in 1979 and was a prominent figure in academia as well as in the local art scene. The auction collection reflects her commitment and keen eye for different kinds of artistic expression.