artist: Ingvar Hällgren (Swedish 1917-1980)
medium: gouache on paper
dimensions: 46 x 33 cm art size / 61 x 48 cm frame size (approx)
signed and dated 1949
presented in its original restored frame with new archival backing and non-reflective UV glass
AU $1420 (approx US $1025 / 880 EUROS / 160,000 yen / 755 GBP - for exact current conversion visit xe.com)
artist biography
Sten Ingvar Hällgren was born 20 September 1917 in Norsjö, Västerbotten. He was a Swedish painter and print maker.
Hällgren studied at the Konstfack University College of Arts, Crafts and Design) in Stockholm from 1941 to 42 and under André Lhote at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris from 1947 to 49. He took private study trips to Denmark in 1946, France yearly from 1947 to 51, Switzerland in 1947, Italy in 1948 and Spain 1952–53.
He had numerous solo exhibitions in Norrland, including in Skellefteå in 1949, 1951 and 1954, Boliden in 1950, and Luleå in 1952. He also participated in many group exhibitions throughout his career including Norrland i konste in Skellefteå in 1945, Sex konstnärer (Six Artists) - a traveling exhibition in 1947, and Unga tecknare at the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm and the Gothenburg Museum of Art in 1951.
Svenskt konstnärslexikon (Swedish Artists’ Encyclopedia) from the 1950s said of Hällgren’s work:
'His painting—in which oil-tempera, watercolour, and pencil drawing have become dominant in recent years—aligns, through its subdued purism, with Norrland artists such as Berta Hansson or Helge Linden. His landscapes from Norrland, France, and Spain are characterised by a delicate, austere sense of form and a subdued palette; the compositions are built up through tonal values into volumes defined by subtle shifts in light—a working method that, particularly in his figure and model paintings, recalls the moderate Cubism of André Lhote or Jacques Villon (e.g., Afton, Cadaqués, 1953).'
Among his public works is the mural Poeten (The Poet) which he painted in the premises of Skellefteå City Library in 1955-56, a work inspired by Pär Lagerkvist’s poetry collection Aftonland.
Examples of his work are held in the collections of the Moderna Museet in Stockholm and the Umeå Museum.
Hällgren passed away on 16 August 1980 in Umeå.
* More on Hällgren can be viewed HERE