Oil on canvas, 80 x 63 cm, including frame 101 x 85 cm. Very thin signature v. b-p lower right.
Affixed label with certificate of authenticity on the reverse by Eva-Lisa Lennartsson.
PROVENANCE
Bukowskis, Stockholm, Moderna, May 1989, cat. no. 29.
Vilhelm Bjerke-Petersen stands as one of the most influential figures in the development of modern and abstract painting in Scandinavia. He is the only Danish artist to have studied at the renowned Bauhaus School in Dessau, Germany, under the tutelage of Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee, following earlier studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Oslo. His first solo exhibition was held at Winkel & Magnussen in Copenhagen in 1930.
Primarily a Surrealist, Bjerke-Petersen was also a prolific writer, publishing books and articles on abstract art and Surrealism. From 1933 to 1934, he was a member of the artists’ group Linien, alongside Henry Heerup and others. As a celebrated figure in the Surrealist movement of the 1930s, he cultivated an extensive international network of colleagues across Europe and participated in most of the major Surrealist exhibitions throughout the 1930s and 1940s.
Bjerke-Petersen’s oeuvre encompasses both abstract-surrealist works and pieces in a more consistently Surrealist idiom. His public commissions include a notable wall decoration for the Swedish Cooperative Union (Kooperativa Förbundet) in Stockholm. Major solo exhibitions include the Skåne Art Museum in Lund (1937) and a joint exhibition with Esaias Thorén in Stockholm (1947).
A passionate advocate for Surrealism in Scandinavia, he published several theoretical works on the movement, including Surrealismen (1934) and Surrealismens Billedverden (1937), as well as artist presentations in the Danish series Unge skandinaviske Kunstnere (“Young Scandinavian Artists”).
Bjerke-Petersen’s works are held in numerous prominent collections, including the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design in Oslo; the National Gallery of Denmark (Statens Museum for Kunst) in Copenhagen; the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm; Göteborgs Konstmuseum; Hallands Konstmuseum; Hälsinglands Museum; and the Moderna Museet in Stockholm.
Folgerecht vorhanden.
