artist: Olle Ängkvist (Swedish 1922-2006)
medium: oil on canvas
dimensions: 31 x 43 cm (approx)
signed and dated 1956 with dedication
presented in its original timber frame, likely made by the artist, with patina and wear consistent with age
minor cracking in small areas of the paint, consistent with age, that do not affect the overall presentation of this wonderfully expressive work
AU $925 (approx US $720 / 590 EUROS / 75,500 yen / 515 GBP - for exact current conversion visit xe.com)
artist biography
Olof "Olle" Gunnar Ängkvist, was born March 16, 1922 in Stockholm. He was a Swedish painter, print maker, illustrator and sculptor.
After graduating in 1942, Ängkvist studied in the spring of 1943 at Otte Sköld's painting school, between 1943 and 1949 at the Kungliga konsthögskolan (Royal Academy of Fine Arts) in Stockholm, and then in the summer of 1949 at the Boston Museum School Summer Session with Oskar Kokoschka as head teacher. In the autumn of 1949, he stayed in Florence and made study trips to around Europe including time in Spain and France. He was awarded a scholarship from the Royal Foundation in 1957 and from the Kimmansson Foundation at the Konstakademien (Academy of Fine Arts) in 1960. Ängkvist received a silver medal at the annual competition for the city's Ostend European Artist Prize 1962 and the state's major work scholarship 1966-1967.
He lived with his family in Rome between 1957 and 1958, and from 1961 to 1963 he worked with ceramic decoration at the Department of Botany at Stockholm University. He had solo exhibitions at Gummesons konsthall in1954, at the Swedish-French art gallery in 1964, and various galleries in Halmstad, Norrköping and Rättvik. He had 2 person shows with Bertil Wahlberg in Karlskrona in 1944, with Georg Suttner in Uppsala in 1956, with Walter Bengtsson at the Artists' House in Stockholm in 1960, and alongside Börje Lindberg at Galerie Gammel Strand in Copenhagen in 1963. He exhibited with Ivan Rodell and Jan Stenvinkel exhibiting decorative sketches for the Twelve Shillings Opera at Galerie Observatorium in Stockholm in 1965. He participated in the Svenska konstnärernas exhibitions at the Konstakademien (Academy of Fine Arts), the Svenska institutets (Swedish Institute’s) graphics exhibitions in Rome, Turin, Paris Milan and London 1961 to 1962, and the artist group Aktiv färgs utställningar at Galerie Blanche in Stockholm. He had work in numerous group exhibitions in Lund, Karlstad, Nyköping, Njurunda, Vienna and Yugoslavia. He was represented in the exhibition Kubism, abstrakt måleri, primitiv skulptur (Cubism, Abstract Painting, Primitive Sculpture) which was shown at Norrköping Art Museum in 1949.
Olle Ängkvist's largest public work was the design of Alby metro station, which was completed in between 1972 and 1974. He also produced the public work Tupp för morgonsömniga in iron, copper and aluminum for Fröslunda school in Stockholm in 1954, the wall relief Växande for Botanikum in Frescati in 1964. He won second prize in the competition for decoration for Ängbybadet in Stockholm in 1957. In 1958 he published a print portfolio titled Folk.
During the 1970s and 1980s, Olle Ängkvist painted mainly optically suggestive pictures, but worked over time with a more playful drawing style. He tried different forms of expression from imaginative to completely informal, where text and image were combined and the canvas had a relief effect of objects and materials pasted on.
The Halland Art Museum has an extensive collection of Olle Ängkvist's works. He is also represented many other public collections including works at the Gothenburg Art Museum, the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, the Arkiv för dekorativ konst (Archive of Decorative Art) in Lund and Lund University's Art Museum.
Ängkvist passed away at the age of 83 on March 9, 2006 in Eftra parish, Halland county.