Lot 200: Tor Bjurström , Swedish 1888-1966 Frukter på fat (still life with fruit) oil on canvas

signed with the artist's initials T S B lower right oil on canvas

46 by 61cm., 18 by 24in.

PROPERTY OF A SWEDISH PRIVATE COLLECTOR
THE GOTHENBURG COLOURISTS Eleven works from Swedish Private Collections

For painting is first and foremost creating poetry and reproducing it in colour. If colour does not take the most important role in this process then it may indeed be art but it can't be painting.
Ivan Ivarson, 1931

During the 1930s, inspired by artists including Van Gogh, Cézanne, and Bonnard, the Fauves and the German Expressionists, as well as the Norwegian painters Edvard Munch and Ludwig Karsten and fellow Swedes Carl Kylberg, Karl Isaksson and Gösta Sandels, a number of artists from the west coast of Sweden began to adopt their own uniquely expressive and sensual colour palette, applying it to local landscapes and subjects as no one had before. Although they never exhibited as a group and did not share a manifesto, the Gothenburg Colourists - as they came to be known in 1948 following publication of Axel Romdahl's book about them, Göteborgskoloristerna - were all pupils at Gothenburg's Valand Academy and united in their desire to introduce a whole new artistic aesthetic to the region. At the time the Academy was under the direction of Tor Bjurström (lot 200), now recognised as the precursor of the Colourists. Born in Stockholm, he made his debut among the group known as 'the men of 1909', and was appointed head of the Valand school in 1920. Bjurström was a popular and enthusiastic teacher, fostering contacts with French artists and able to bring out in his many gifted pupils their individual talents. The most famous of the Colourists are Inge Schiöler, Ivan Ivarson, and Ragnar Sandberg, and among the artists also usually grouped under the heading are Folke Andreasson (1902-48), AAke Göransson (1902-48), Nils Nilsson (1901-49), Karin Parrow (1900-84), Waldemar Sjölander (1906-88), and Erling Ärlingsson (1904-82). The following works (lots 200-210) are all from private collections, and several were acquired directly from the artists as early as the 1950s. With interest in the Colourists fast growing in Sweden, now is a fitting time to introduce these artists to the international market. Note for lot 200 Tor Bjurström was born in Stockholm and grew up in a wealthy merchant family interested in music and art. In 1905 he began his studies at the Konstnärsförbundets Skola in Stockholm with Richard Bergh and Carl Nordström as teachers. Bjurström continued his studies in Copenhagen and in 1908 went to Paris where he became a pupil of Henri Matisse. In 1920 he took up a teaching position at the Valand Academy in Gothenburg where he worked throughout the '20s. During this period he had a profound influence not only on the school but on the artistic life of Gothenburg.