Modern Art + Design presents Carl Kylberg, "Venez a ma suite (Följ med)"

Carl Kylberg

"Venez à ma suite (Följ med) [Come, Follow Me]"

Carl Kylberg searched for ways of expressing the spiritual, the omnipresent and the universal through his painting. This ‘search’ also evokes in his work a powerful feeling of timelessness. That Kylberg persistently tried to express this is evident in his engagement with philosophical and religious thoughts about human existence, our lives and the paths we take on this earth. In his diaries he would regularly comment on his painting, allowing us to find the key to unlock his profound artistic practice. To a young Kylberg religion was at first something restrictive. With a scholarship he was able to travel to Berlin where he became stimulated by the intellectual environment, and where he could read literature that otherwise had been strongly prohibited in his family home in which religion was a constant presence.

Later in life Kylberg would find his way back to religion and in several of his paintings, the religious motif is central. Kylberg considered artists to be visionaries who, with their creativity, would interpret the symbols of the times, revealing them to others. When Kylberg was asked whether his biblical imagery was due to its painterly potential or because of religious ideas he replied: “Both... But I am not a religious dogmatist... to me, light is in itself a kind of religion”.