Mauritz Karström

Mauritz Karström (1962–2005) was an artist with a distinctive and instantly recognisable visual language, characterised by intense colour and an intuitive approach to image-making. He studied at Lunnevad Folk High School, the Nordic Art School in Finland, and Valand Academy in Gothenburg, later establishing his practice in Gothenburg, where he maintained a studio in the city’s fishing harbour. It was there that he found the particular quality of light that became a central element of his artistic work.

Karström’s paintings are distinguished by strong, vibrant colours and a spontaneous working process in which abstract and figurative elements emerge freely, unconstrained by traditional conventions. He worked across a range of media, including pastel, watercolour, gouache and oil, often combining techniques to create surfaces rich in movement and vitality. Figurative motifs recur throughout his oeuvre—appearing either in bustling, densely populated scenes or as solitary figures—forming a vivid and highly associative visual universe.

His artistic expression conveys a strong sense of the inner and the spiritual. Karström frequently spoke of God and spirits, and his work may be seen as a direct manifestation of a search for realities beyond the visible world. Following a diagnosis of schizophrenia, artistic creation became a means of processing and navigating his experiences, lending his works a particular intensity and emotional charge.

Karström’s work is represented in the collections of institutions including the Gothenburg Museum of Art and the Nordic Watercolour Museum, as well as internationally in Tokyo and at the Louvre in Paris.

In this themed auction, collectors are offered the opportunity to acquire nine works by Mauritz Karström. The selection includes several of his characteristic figures, among them “Solmän”, “Bjarne” and “Slipsmannen”, as well as the landscape painting “Blå morgon”.