Halmstadgruppen

Last updated
Mjellby Art Museum outside Halmstad, Sweden Mjellby konstmuseum 2019.jpg
Mjellby Art Museum outside Halmstad, Sweden

Halmstadgruppen was a group of six artists that collectively followed and developed avant-garde modern art movements such as cubism, post-cubism, purist, futurist and surrealism at Halmstad in Halland County, Sweden. A permanent showroom in Mjellby, now Mjellby Art Museum in Halmstad was created to exhibit their art. Here an extensive collection of the Halmstadgruppen works are exhibited. The museum was founded in 1980 by Swedish art critic and museum director Viveka Bosson. She is the daughter of the late Erik Olson, one of the members in Halmstadgruppen. Bosson bought the former site of the Mjellby folkskola (elementary school) outside Halmstad in 1980, setting up Mjellby Art Museum and later donated it to the Halmstad Municipality in 1997. [1]

Contents

History

Impressed by the avant-garde movements Axel Olson, his younger brother Erik and their cousin Waldemar Lorentzon in Halmstad formed into a group aptly calling themselves "Gnistan" which translated means “The Spark”.

In May 1919, “Gnistan” made their debut at an amateur exhibition in Halmstad. Through this they met Egon Östlund an engineer philanthropist, who was also exhibiting with some Gösta Adrian-Nilsson (GAN) influenced canvases of his own GAN was a close friend of Östlund.

By July 1919, Östlund had introduced them to Gösta Adrian-Nilsson who was spending part of the summer with friends in Halmstad. Stellan Mörner's father had become governor of Halland County. This had prompted Stellen to return from Paris to exhibit his art in the Halmstad city library and work on a local commission. Mörner was an artist with a skill for portraiture but again was interested in the avant-garde.

Egon Östlund, introduced Mörner to the young painters Sven Jonson and Esaias Thorén. They organized an exhibition in Halmstad in 1929. Stellen Mörner exhibited his modern art paintings together with Erik and Axel Olson, Sven Jonson, Waldemar Lorentzon and Esaias Thorén. The local Halmstad press denounced the exhibition of new modernist art with derision. However, unfazed the young Halmstad artists were invited to exhibit in Lund that year. The Halmstad group was born as they got together in 1929, a group with the single aim of introducing cubism, surrealism and concrete art (modern art) to Swedish audiences. They engaged an imaginative and dreamlike imagery with figurative content and expressions of their costal origin in a plain geometric image, giving an adequate expression using pure colour and form synthesis. In the 1930s the young artists had slipped from early cubism into a surrealist imagery of a Nordic character. The Halmstadgruppen lasted 50 years together. This period was the end of Dadasim and the beginning of the “Age of Anxiety” as described in the poem by W.H. Auden, published in 1947. During the years 1922–23, Axel Olson (1899-1986) studied in Berlin with the Russian painter and sculptor Alexander Archipenko. Axel's brother Erik Olson (1901-1986) and their cousin Waldemar Lorentzon (1899-1984) studied in 1924 at the Fernand Léger painting academy in Paris. Sven Jonson (1902-1981), Stellan Mörner (1896-1979), and Esaias Thorén (1901- 1981), also studied in Paris during that time. During their periods abroad they came in contact with modern developments in painting. Returning to Sweden, Halmstadgruppen was founded in 1929 and was unchanged until 1979, with the death of Stellan Mörner . [2] [3]

The members of Halmstadgruppen were pioneers in the Swedish modernist art movement. During the 1920s, they were cubists and during the 1930s introduced surrealism in Sweden together with Gösta Adrian-Nilsson (1884–1965). [4]

Members

Related Research Articles

The 1925–26 season in Swedish football, starting August 1925 and ending July 1926:

The 1929-30 season in Swedish football, starting August 1929 and ending July 1930:

The 1931–32 season in Swedish football, starting August 1931 and ending July 1932:

The 1939–40 season in Swedish football, starting August 1939 and ending July 1940:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nils Dardel</span> Swedish Post-Impressionist painter

Nils Dardel was a 20th-century Swedish Post-Impressionist painter, grandson to famous Swedish painter Fritz von Dardel.

The 1941–42 season in Swedish football, starting August 1941 and ending July 1942:

<i>The Jazz Boy</i> 1958 film

The Jazz Boy is a 1958 Swedish musical film directed by Hasse Ekman and starring Ekman, Maj-Britt Nilsson, Elof Ahrle and Georg Funkquist. The film was an attempt to make a nostalgical cavalcade of the Swedish entertainment scene of the 1920s and 1930s, and featured many songs from that era. The film's sets were designed by the art director P.A. Lundgren.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mjellby Art Museum</span> Art museum in Halmstad, Sweden

Mjellby Art Museum is situated outside Halmstad, Sweden. There is an art gallery featuring exhibitions of diverse content – everything from 1900s modernists to current contemporary art.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Erik Olson</span> Swedish artist (1901–1986)

Erik Artur Olson was a Swedish painter, illustrator, graphic artist, sculptor, theater decorator, and member of Halmstadgruppen. He was the brother of artist Axel Olson, and in 1929 married Solvig Sven-Nilsson. Olson is represented, for example, at the National Museum and the Museum of Modern Art. Olson is known as a Swedish surrealist. He devoted himself to dream-like, over realistic artwork.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prince Eugen Medal</span> Award

The Prince Eugen Medal is a medal conferred by the King of Sweden for "outstanding artistic achievement".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gösta Adrian-Nilsson</span> Swedish artist and writer

Gösta Adrian-Nilsson, usually referred to as GAN, was a Swedish artist and writer. He is regarded as a pioneer of the Swedish modernist art movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pål Nils Nilsson</span> Swedish photographer and filmmaker

Inge Pål-Nils Nilsson, was a Swedish photographer and filmmaker active from the 1950s to the 1990s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Konstnärsförbundets skola</span> Former art school in Stockholm, Sweden

Konstnärsförbundets skola was a painting school in Stockholm, Sweden, which was offered by Konstnärsförbundet 1890–1908. The latter association was in turn established in opposition to the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts. One of the school's co-founders was Richard Bergh. The school had several well-known teachers, including Anders Zorn, Nils Kreuger and Karl Nordström, in addition to Bergh himself. Several of the alumni would distinguish themselves on the contemporary Swedish visual arts scene. The group De unga, for example, consisted mainly of pupils from the school.

<i>The Talk of the Town</i> (1941 film) 1941 film

The Talk of the Town is a 1941 Swedish drama film directed by Per Lindberg and starring Olof Sandborg, Carl Ström and Marianne Löfgren. The film's sets were designed by the art director Bertil Duroj. Location shooting took place around Nyköping.

<i>Darling of Mine</i> 1955 film

Darling of Mine is a 1955 Swedish comedy film directed by Schamyl Bauman and starring Sickan Carlsson, Karl-Arne Holmsten and Erik Berglund. It was shot at the Centrumateljéerna Studios in Stockholm. The film's sets were designed by the art director Arthur Spjuth.

<i>Speed Fever</i> 1953 film

Speed Fever is a 1953 Swedish drama film directed by Egil Holmsen and starring Arne Ragneborn, Sven-Axel Carlsson and Erik Berglund. The film's sets were designed by the art director Bertil Duroj. It was shot on location around Stockholm.

<i>Night Light</i> (film) 1957 film

Night Light is a 1957 Swedish romantic comedy film directed by Lars-Eric Kjellgren and starring Marianne Bengtsson, Lars Ekborg and Gunnar Björnstrand. It was shot at the Råsunda Studios in Stockholm. The film's sets were designed by the art director P.A. Lundgren.

<i>The Hard Game</i> 1956 film

The Hard Game is a 1956 Swedish sports drama film directed by Lars-Eric Kjellgren and starring Sven-Eric Gamble, Ann-Marie Gyllenspetz and Åke Grönberg. It was shot at the Råsunda Studios in Stockholm and on location in Gothenburg. The film's sets were designed by the art director P.A. Lundgren.

References

  1. "The Halmstad Group history". Halmstads kommun. Retrieved March 1, 2020.
  2. "Halmstad Group." The Concise Grove Dictionary of Art. Oxford University Press, Inc., 2002.
  3. "Biography of Axel Olson (1899-1986)". thebiography.us. Retrieved March 1, 2020.
  4. "The art of Gösta Adrian-Nilsson, 1884–1965". johncoulthart.com. Nov 15, 2012. Retrieved March 1, 2020.
  5. "Stellan Mörner". Mjellbykonstmuseum.se. 2011-10-14. Retrieved 2016-02-02.
  6. "Axel Olson". Mjellbykonstmuseum.se. 2011-10-14. Retrieved 2016-02-02.
  7. "Esaias Thorén". Mjellbykonstmuseum.se. 2011-10-14. Retrieved 2016-02-02.
  8. "Erik Olson". Mjellbykonstmuseum.se. 2011-10-14. Retrieved 2016-02-02.
  9. "Sven Jonson". Mjellbykonstmuseum.se. 2011-10-14. Retrieved 2016-02-02.

Other sources