artist: Helge Lindqvist (Swedish 1913-1967)
medium: screenprint
dimensions: 37 x 30 cm print size / 39 x 32 cm framed size (approx)
signed and dated 1954
edition 33/100
presented in a new custom hand painted white shadowbox frame with UV museum glass
AU $1195 (approx US $850 / 710 EUROS / 93,000 yen / 610 GBP - for exact current conversion visit xe.com)
artist biography
Helge Lindqvist was a Swedish painter, draftsman, and sculptor, born on December 18, 1913 in Virbo, Misterhult parish, Kalmar County. He began painting in the late 1930s, initially creating naturalistic landscapes before gradually moving towards a non-figurative and constructivist style. Over the course of his career he explored a wide range of media, including still lifes, serigraphs, collages, glass mosaics, and sculpture.
Lindqvist studied at Arvid Källström’s painting school in Oskarshamn between 1940 and 1945, later continuing his education at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris in 1947. He took private study trips to Italy, France, Spain and the Nordic countries. He was a member of Källström’s artist collective—known as Källströmsgruppen—where he was recognised as the group’s “painting constructivist.” Together, the group exhibited widely in Sweden, with Lindqvist also presenting his work independently at Liljevalchs Konsthall and Galleri Brinken in Stockholm, as well as internationally, including at the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles in Paris in 1952.
Critics described his art as combining “elegance and intimacy,” balancing lyrical linework with a constructive, architectural imagination. Lindqvist himself expressed that for him, painting was a matter of proportion, rhythm, and form—an art that should embody a consciously embraced idea rather than reflect passing moods.
In 1954 he married the Danish artist Else Torp, with whom he had two daughters, Rosine and Anna. Their home became a vibrant creative space, filled with Lindqvist’s works alongside pieces by his contemporaries, as well as imaginative objects and finds that reflected his aesthetic curiosity.
Alongside his art, Lindqvist was deeply interested in music. He built his first violin in the 1930s and played in local ensembles. During the Second World War, he befriended Polish-Jewish refugees in Oskarshamn, including violinist Josef Vohryzek, who gave him lessons.
In the 1960s he worked at the Scania factory in Oskarshamn. Tragically, in the summer of 1967 he died from injuries sustained in a workplace accident, just months before the death of his mentor Arvid Källström. He was 53 years old.
Lindqvist’s work is held in the collection of the Kalmar Art Museum.