“Flicka med flätor och parasoll” by Lena Cronqvist

The first meeting with Lena Cronqvist took place in the late 1990s during a trip to an art fair in Chicago. After a long day of meetings, the evening continued at a jazz club. By then, her breakthrough had already been firmly established, yet what lingered most was not her public artistic persona, but her way of being present. She moved through the metropolitan night with the same unguarded curiosity as her girl figures, but also with an attentiveness and integrity that lent the spaces she inhabited a particular gravity.

In “Flicka med flätor och parasoll”, something of this duality returns. The sculpture possesses a clear physical presence, but also a sense of resistance. The girl appears not only vulnerable, but also self-contained—she establishes her own space and marks a distinct boundary against her surroundings.

It is within this tension between exposure and control that the work’s contemporary relevance becomes especially evident. In a time marked by constant connectivity and an uninterrupted flow of information, the sculpture can be read as a reminder of the importance of withdrawal, of safeguarding an inner space, and of choosing one’s degree of availability. Here, the parasol becomes a discreet yet powerful gesture—a means of both filtering and shaping one’s surroundings.

“Flicka med flätor och parasoll” is cast in bronze and was produced in 2018 at the renowned Herman Bergman Art Foundry in Stockholm. The work will be presented in connection with The Contemporary Art Sale on 21 May.

Read more about the work here ›