artist: Axel Olson (Swedish 1899-1986)
medium: mixed media on card
dimensions: 22 x 16 cm art size / 39 x 34 cm framed size (approx)
signed
circa 1950s/60s
presented in a new hand finished shadow box timber frame with archival mat and non-reflective UV glass
AU $1195 (approx US $825 / 775 EUROS / 108,000 yen / 685 GBP - for exact current conversion visit xe.com)
artist biography
Karl Axel Bernhard Olson was born October 22, 1899 in Halmstad. He was Swedish painter and print maker and member of the renowned Halmstadgruppen (Halmstad group).
In 1915 he formed the group Gnistan together with Erik Olson and his cousin Waldemar Lorentzon. In 1919, he debuted at an exhibition in Halmstad, which led to a contact with Gösta Adrian-Nilsson. In 1922 he traveled to Italy and Germany to paint. The following year he settled in Berlin and became a student of Alexander Archipenko. In Berlin he became familiar with the continent 's avant-garde painting such as Cubism, Futurism and Constructivism.
In 1924, Axel Olson returned to Halmstad, where he formed and became a teacher for the group De unga together with Sven Jonson and Esaias Thorén. To support himself, he also worked for a time producing advertising illustrations. In 1929 he helped form the Halmstad group. The six artists making up the group were Stellan Mörner, Waldemar Lorentzon, Esaias Thorén, Sven Jonson, Axel Olson and his brother Erik Olson - they collectively followed and developed avant-garde modern art movements such as Cubism, post-Cubism, Purist, Futurist and Surrealism at Halmstad in Halland County.
Axel Olson's art was initially characterised by Cubism, but like the other artists in the Halmstad group, he oriented himself during the 1930s towards Surrealism. He often took his Surrealist motifs from his everyday surroundings, often with plows and anchors as recurring motifs. In 1937 he exhibited in London.
At the outbreak of war in 1939, Olson painted one of his most famous works ‘Hamn’ (Harbour). The events of World War II are also reflected in other paintings such as ‘Svart kväll’ (Black Evening) (1940). During the 1940s, he participated in the so-called Söndrumskolonin, an artist collective with, among others, Sven X:et Erixson and other members of the Halmstad group . In 1944 he married Anna-Lisa Falck (1905-1988).
In 1948, Axel Olson traveled to Paris and came into contact with French non-figurative art , which left a mark on his painting. A trip to Provence also inspired him to a lighter colour in the early 1950s. During the 1960s, he returned to a surrealist imagery.
Examples of Olson’s work are held in numerous public collections including the National Museum in Stockholm, the Halland Art Museum, the Norrköping Art Museum and the Örebro County Council.
He passed away on September 7, 1986 at the age of 86 in Halmstad.