\artist: Bertil Ågren (Swedish 1930-1995)
medium: oil on panel
dimensions: 61 x 31 cm art size / 69 x 39 cm frame (approx)
signed
circa 1960s
presented in its original restored and repainted frame
AU $940 (approx US $1725 / 1610 EUROS / 277,000 yen / 1365 GBP - for exact current conversion visit xe.com)
artist biography
Bertil Johannes Ågren was born March 25, 1930 in Skellefteå. He was a Swedish painter and illustrator.
After graduating a teaching degree in Umeå in 1953, he worked for a period as a teacher before becoming a professional artist. During his time studying as a teacher he had painted as a hobby and took lessons with artist Albert Johansson and also went on several private study trips to France, Spain and Denmark.
Ågren exhibited in solo and group exhibitions. Select solo exhibitions include one at Skelleftea in 1950 (together with Sture Meijer) and again 1962, one at Hagfors 1955, Vindeln in Vasterbottens in I955, 1961 and 1967, Hudiksvall in1956 (together with Hans Östman), Umeå in 1959 and (together with Östman) 1962, Bjurholm in Västerbotten in 1961 (together with Sven Svenson and Östman) and 1963, Sköldinge in Södermanland in 1962 (together with Bengt Reinholtz), Nyköping the same year (together with C. A. Pettersson and Reinholtz) and Örnsköldsvik in1963 and Härnösand 1965 (both with Reinholtz). He exhibited at the Sörmland salons in Eskilstuna in 1960, Nyköping in 1961 and 1964, Katrineholm in 1962 and Södertälje in 1965, and the Stockholm salons in Liljevalchs art gallery in 1963 and 1965.
At first he painted landscapes, still life and movement studies of children, from 1961 mainly non-figurative compositions. His painting is extremely "well-ordered", geometrically strict and with an increasingly confident colour palette. He also worked as an illustrator and produced some textile works. He illustrated K. Fahlgren's Skelleftea sockens historia, I-II (1953) and produced illustrations for Södermanland Nyheter newspaper. Notable among his public works is a mural painted in 1957 at Degerfors forestry farm Degerön in Västerbotten.
Examples of Ågren’s work is held in the collections of Hälsingland's Museum, Umeå seminary, and municipality collections in Hudiksvall, Umeå, Nyköping and Oxelösund.
He passed away at the age of 65 on April 22, 1995 in Nordingrå.