artist: Gunnar Nordström (Swedish 1921–2021)
medium: mixed media on board
dimensions: 32 x 47 cm frame size (approx)
signed and dated 56
presented in a new shadowbox hand finished timber frame with non-reflective UV glass
AU $1125 (approx US $800 / 735 EUROS / 104,000 yen / 645 GBP - for exact current conversion visit xe.com)
artist biography
Erik Gunnar Nordström was born on 20 February 1921 in Älvros, Jämtland County. He was a Swedish painter, print maker and commercial artist. He was the son of Edvard Samuelsson and Elin Nordström. In 1946 he married the artist Eva Brite-Louise Kellberg-Nordström.
Nordström pursued his art studies in Stockholm, first at Académie Libre from 1940 to 1941, and then at Otte Sköld’s painting school from 1943 to 1944. He undertook private tudy trips to France, Italy, Spain and the Lofoten Islands, which would later influence his artistic expression.
He exhibited in solo exhibitions and group exhibitions. Select show shows include Galerie Æsthetica in Stockholm in 1951, in Örebro in 1945, at the Norrbotten Museum in Luleå (together with his wife) in 1945, in Jönköping in 1946, in Umeå (also with his wife) in 1947, and in Enköping in 1949 and 1951. Nordström regularly participated in group exhibitions, including at the Svensk-Franska Konstgalleriet (Swedish-French Art Gallery) in Stockholm in 1952, at Galerie Æsthetica in 1955, and at Liljevalchs Konsthall in 1954 in Sweden’s General Art Association’s spring salon. Outside of Sweden he exhibited in Helsinki, Miami and Biarritz in France.
His work often depicted city views and landscapes, particularly inspired by his art travels within Sweden—especially Norrland—as well as to France and Lofoten. In his figurative works and still lifes, he favoured sharply outlined forms in a cool colour palette, often with a glass-like effect reminiscent of stained-glass techniques. Critics observed that Nordström worked intensely with the problems of abstract painting, striving for clarity and intentional form.
His strict method of form construction was also applied in large-scale commissions, including a wall painting in oil titled Aerovision at the Aerotechnical Research Institute in Stockholm in 1955, and the mural Katedral at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg in 1950.
Nordström was also active as a printmaker, primarily working with linocut and lithography. He engaged in book art as a cover designer and illustrator, and contributed as a cartoonist and illustrator for newspapers including Dagens Nyheter and Expressen. Examples of his work are held in public collections including the Statens konstråd (The State Council for the Arts in Sweden), Lindesberg Museum, Linköping University collection, and he Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences in Stockholm. He was a member of the National Association of Swedish Artists.
He passed away at the age of 100 on April 13, 2021.