Today, Barbro Östlihn is one of Sweden’s most appreciated artists. Her work is currently on display in a large retrospective exhibition at Göteborgs konstmuseum. During her lifetime, her work was not as recognized as her ex-husband Öyvind Fahlström’s, but her paintings have come to be more widely celebrated and appreciated in recent years.
Educated at Konstfack in Stockholm, she moved with her then-husband Öyvind Fahlström to New York in 1961. They both socialized with pop artists such as Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, and Claes Oldenburg. Here, Östlihn developed a stylized style based on the facades and exteriors of Manhattan’s houses, which at that time where being frequently demolished to make room for new skyscrapers.
In 1975 Östlihn and Fahlström separate and Östlihn meets the French poet, artist, and journalist Charles Dreyfus, with whom she moves to Paris the following year. In the latter part of her artistic practice, the composition is made up of a single form element that is repeated in the painting. The motifs are taken from something other than the exteriors of buildings, for example, a parquet floor, like the auction's painting "Parquet d'Honfleur". The painting was shown at the Galerie Aronowitsch in 1981 together with other paintings depicting different parquet floors. Östlihn's artistic practice operates within a visual domain and is ingenious in its compositions.