Exhibition sale and book launch at Bukowskis in Stockholm.
Viewing: 3-4 October 11:00-17:00 at Berzelii Park 1.

”Love is for the Birds”

The history and background behind the project, a discussion of the epilogue “Indian Summer in New York” from the newly published book (in English).

Peter Åström, Denise Grünstein and Christoffer von Platen met for the first time in New York, at 16th Street, back in 1975. Peter and Chris went to art school at the time and shared this very apartment where Peter still lives and works. Denise, also an art student in her twenties, visited New York for the first time with a group of class mates from Stockholm. This little trio - Peter, Denise and Chris - became buddies, a friendship that has lasted all of their lives.

Headhunter Ulrik Swedrup saw Peter’s early work in Stockholm a few years later. He was captivated at first sight, parti-cularly by the Xerox Art Peter was exploring at the time. Ulrik started collecting Peter’s work, and a close friendship began growing between collector and artist. Ulrik also assisted Peter when it came to practical and economical issues. The prize winning book, Astrom-Austrøm-Ästrœm-Åström, was initiated and published by Ulrik Swedrup in 1998.

Some years ago Ulrik decided to investigate what works Peter might have in his private collection of his own paintings. Around the turn of the Century Peter had moved from Manhattan up to the Catskill Mountains in upstate New York, to get some peace of mind and more space to work in. Not so long ago, Peter had to leave his farm studio and move back to his Manhattan hub, at 10 East 16th Street. Having moved and gone through a complicated divorce, a great number of his art works were left up there at the Catskills farm. We all wondered what could be hidden there in this mass of canvases.

In October 2015, Denise and Chris went to New York, we arrived in a fantastic Indian Summer, that stayed the whole week we were there. All the paintings were now hauled back to the studio on 16th Street. And there was literally, a pile of canvases stacked on the floor. Our mission was to go through this pile and see what was in there, probably work from the early Eighties up till the first years of the new century.

Unfolding them one by one, It didn’t take long until we realised there were quite a few hidden treasures in this mound of fabrics. You could clearly see the different periods and influences Peter had been undergoing and through this you could sense the variations of the Golden Era of New York as the home of the avant-garde, probably peaking by the end of the Millennium. And yet, it is amazing to see Peter keeping his own bench mark on every single one of his pieces.

We informed Ulrik about our fabulous discovery. His immediate suggestion was that these art works should be shown somehow – somewhere – sometime. After a long, off-and-on, tedious selection process, with support from the Curator Greger Ulf Nilson, we picked 49 paintings and collages. And it was decided that these art works would be transported to Sweden and actually be offered for sale too.

Ulrik suggested to his friends at Bukowskis in Stockholm, one of Swedens’s most famous auction houses, that the collection could be shown in their gallery as an exclusive side project. No sooner said than done – it happens in October 2017. More or less two years after the first canvas was unfolded and spread to the wall on 16th Street on a a fine Indian Summer day in New York.

About the titles
A few blocks down from 10 East 16th Street, on Broadway, you’ll find The Strand, a classic New York bookstore. Outside the store, on the sidewalk, they place books they want to get rid of on overloaded wooden book shelves with titles nobody ever heard of. You can buy, say 5 books for a dollar. Peter has I would say - an artistic hobby: to buy a bunch of books from these boxes every time he passes The Strand. When he doesn’t have anything better to do, he cuts out lines and sentences from the books and put them into new combinations glued to a piece of paper. The titles of the art works pre-sented here, have been taken from some of these cut-out-poems.

Christoffer von Platen, Stockholm, aug 22 – 2017
cvp@vintergatan.se
0709-183182

If you are interested in purchasing artworks, please contact:
Ulrik Swedrup ulrik.swedrup@mmf.se 070-643 57 42 or
Madeleine de Geer madeleinedegeer@cvsearch.se 070-873 16 16.
The book will be on sale during the event, priced at SEK 300.