artist: Nils Wedel (Swedish 1897-1967)
medium: gouache / mixed media on paper
dimensions: 31 x 24 cm artwork size / 52 x 48 cm framed size
signed
circa 1950s
presented in a new hand finished timber frame with archival backing, mat and UV non-reflective museum glass
AU $1420 (approx US $1045 / 875 EUROS / 110,500 yen / 785 GBP - for exact current conversion visit xe.com)
artist biography
Nils Adolf Wedel was Swedish painter, designer and print maker born in Gothenburg on February 4, 1897. Wedel was married to textile artist Alice Wedel.
He studied at the Slöjdföreningens Skola in Gothenburg from 1915 to 1917 under Swedish artist Albert Eldh. Wedel lived in Denmark for five years from 1923 to 1928, moving back to Sweden where he lived in Malmö from 1928 to 1938. He then moved to Gothenburg where he taught paintings at graphics at the Handicraft Society School from 1939 to 1958. Wedel travelled widely. He visited Copenhagen in 1919 to 1920, Paris between 1921 and 1922 where he spent a year at the Académie Moderne studying under the French artist Emile Othon Friesz (1879-1949), Munich in 1922, Rome in 1949 and England in 1962.
Wedel exhibited extensively in both solo and group exhibitions throughout his career. Select exhibitions include - joint exhibition with his wife Alice at the Malmö Town Hall in 1937, with Karin Parrow at the Gothenburg Art Gallery in 1943, with Christian Bergat the Halmstad Museum in 1944, with Nils Nilsson at Galleri Modern Konst in Malmö in 1942. Solo exhibitions include show at Färg och Form, Malmö Museum, Galleri Brinken, the Swedish-French art gallery and the Sveagalleriet in Stockholm, SDS-hall in Malmö, galleries in Borås, Helsingborg, Norrköping, Hässleholm, Linköping, Uddevalla, Milan and Venice. During the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, he participated very regularly in group exhibitions arranged by the Skåne Art Association in Malmö and with the Art Association Aura in Lund, Malmö and several Scanian cities. He showed at several o fThe Graphic Society's exhibitions in Stockholm and the Kunstnernes Efteraarsudstilling in Copenhagen from 1923 to 1926, at the Swedish General Art Association's salons in Stockholm and the exhibition Surrealism in the North which was shown in Lund 1937 and the Scandinavian exhibition in Copenhagen 1939, Gothenburg painting of today shown in Turku 1950, Scanian artists at Liljevalchs art gallery in 1951, an exhibition with Gothenburg artists that was shown in Dublin in 1951 and the Nordic Art Association's exhibitions in Oslo and Bergen. As a member of Grupp 54, he participated in the association's activities.
Wedel produced numerous public art pieces included decorative paintings in the stairwells at the Norrköping Museum, the People's House in Gothenburg and Linköping and mosaic artwork at the post office building in Sundsvall.
As a print maker worked with multiple mediums including etching, aquatin , woodcut, wood engraving and lithography . He created a wood engraving in which he presented his five sources of inspiration Matisse , Gauguin , Picasso , Braque and Campigli, and in 1945 he published a print portfolio with four colour lithographs and two woodcuts which was followed by a portfolio together with Adja Yunkers in 1946. He settled in 1958 at Orust where he executed a number of easel paintings in oil which he exhibited together with his wife at Gothenburg's art gallery1964. As a poster artist, he created a number of striking posters that attracted great appreciation. He executed a series of unconventional book bindings for N. Lindes bookbindery in Gothenburg as well as the decorations for Benjamin Britten's opera cantata St. Nicholas and to the ballet Fröken Julie for the Stora teatern in Gothenburg in 1952. During his years in Gothenburg, he was also an art reporter and culture writer for Ny Tid and editor of the publication Konstnärer om konst.
He is represented in numerous public collections including the National Museum in Stockholm, Gothenburg Museum, Malmö Art Museum Norrköping Museum, Karlstad Museums and the Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen.\
He passed away at age 70 on July 17, 1967 in Kleva, Sweden.