artist: Birger Strååt (Swedish 1914-2008)
dimensions: 26 x 21 cm panel size / 40 x 35 cm frame size (approx)
medium: oil on panel
signed and dated 52
presented in its original frame with patina consistent with age
AU $515 (approx US $405 / 330 EUROS / 43,000 yen / 285 GBP - for exact current conversion visit xe.com)
artist biography
Carl Birger Strååt was born on February 22, 1914 in Norrköping. He was a Swedish artist, print maker, illustrator and musician.
Strååt initially studied to be an engineer between 1928 and 1931 at the Norrköpings Tekniska Skola. He then studied music for 10 years and was an alto violinist at the Norrköping Orchestra Association in 1934 and 1935, but in the 1940's chose to devote himself entirely to painting. His love of painting and drawing began when he was young and he was primarily self taught as an artist. He took independent art study trips to France and the Netherlands. He was awarded the Östgöta Art Association's scholarship in 1940 and 1942 and Folkbladet Östgöten's Cultural Scholarship in 1966. He was part of a group of artists that gathered around painter and sculptor Albert Sjöström - other members of the group included Carl Delden, Harry Carlsson, and Gustav Adolf Fahle. The group was deeply connected with the Norrköping and its landscape, and Strååt interpreted the area with his finely tuned low-key light colour scale. Over the years, he created views from the city and the surrounding landscape, with an emphasis on Kolmården and Bråviken's waters. Stylistically, he worked primarily in an abstract simplified style, but for a period also in a more purely tight geometric forms. In addition he painted still life works and street scenes.
Strååt had solo exhibitions at Gummesons konsthall in Stockholm, and at galleries in Katrineholm, Borås, Norrköping and Linköping. He had shows alongside Arvid Knöppel in Linköping in 1944, with Carl Delden and Pär Thorell in Finspång in 1959, and with Harry Carlsson and Vidar Forsberg in Byske in 1965. Beginning in the mid-1940s he has participated in Östgöta konstförening group exhibitions in Östergötland and in the Sveriges allmänna konstförenings (Swedish General Art Association) exhibitions at Liljevalchs konsthall.
Strååt is represented a number of the permanent collections in Sweden including works at the Norrköping Art Museum and the Östergötland Museum.
He passed away on October 1, 2008 at the age of 94.