Gösta Adrian-Nilsson - SKETCHLINE

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1884 - 1965

Gösta Adrian-Nilsson

description

A Swedish artist and writer, one of the first modernists in his country. Gösta Adrian-Nilsson, who signed his paintings with the acronym GAN, was a comprehensively gifted person. He painted in various avant-garde styles, was an active member of the German progressive group Der Sturm (Storm, Berlin), created talented illustrations for the works of his contemporaries, and also wrote his own poems and fairy tales for children. A great admirer of Oscar Wilde in his youth, Adrian-Nilsson adored the decadent movement of the late 19th century, but at the beginning of the next century joined German Expressionists, Italian Futurists, and later French Cubists, making a considerable contribution to the spread of these art movements in his homeland.

Key ideas:

– Adrian-Nilsson’s work is diverse and even eclectic in the most positive sense of the word. He created a mixt from several contemporary art styles and became the author of one of the most unique and vivid styles in the visual arts of the early twentieth century.

– The artist’s painting is permeated with the energy of the newest technologies, the thirst for movement and strong eroticism. His style cannot be called entirely abstract. In his paintings, GAN always depicted specific objects and people, stylizing their forms and breaking large planes into separate elements. Male images (sailors, soldiers, people of hard-working professions), which the author used continuously in his works, are interspersed with urban landscapes and images of various mechanisms in action. They symbolize and visualize technological progress and the speed of modern life.

– Adrian-Nilsson’s canvases are distinguished by deep, saturated colors, which are more characteristic of Expressionism in their tonality than tactical Cubism or thoughtful Abstractionism. Most of them are a kaleidoscope of intersecting picturesque planes and shimmering color effects.
– The artist used simplified geometric constructions; their paintings have a perspective and airspace surrounding the main characters in the foreground. This feature is visible in such works as “Acrobats”, “Artist” and many others.

– In the second half of his creative career, the art of Hadrian-Nilsson became more abstract, approaching Synthetic Cubism and Surrealism. Paintings of the artist’s French colleagues influenced his style. His paintings became similar to collages, combining various objects of everyday life that were completely unrelated to each other, as well as stencilled inscriptions and signs.

– The late works of the author, made in the constructivist and surrealistic style, are proof of the constant active interaction of Gosta Adrian-Nilsson with the changing trends of European progressive art and are of great importance for the further development of Scandinavian abstract painting.

Gösta Adrian-Nilsson

On Artist

flow

Symbolism

Modern

Expressionism

Cubism

Futurism

friends

Umberto Boccioni

Gino Severini

artists

Vasily Kandinsky

Franz Marc

Joseph Fernand Henri Leger

By Artist

flow

Cubism

Futurism

Surrealism

artists

Sven Johnson

Eric M. Olson

Axel Olson

description

Mediums: oil, canvas. Location: The Museum of Modern Art, Stockholm (Sweden).

1924

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Mediums: oil, canvas. Location: private collection.

1924

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Mediums: oil, canvas. Location: private collection.

1923

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Mediums: oil, canvas. Location: The Museum of Modern Art, Stockholm (Sweden).

1920

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Mediums: oil, canvas. Location: The Trelleborg Art Museum (Sweden).

1920

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Mediums: oil, canvas. Location: The Museum of Modern Art, Stockholm (Sweden).

1918

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Mediums: oil, canvas. Location: The Norrkoping Museum of Art and History (Sweden).

1915 - 1916

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Mediums: oil, canvas. Location: The Mjellby Art Museum in Halmstad (Sweden).

1916

description

Mediums: oil, canvas. Location: private collection.

1915

description

Mediums: oil, canvas. Location: The Museum of Modern Art, Stockholm (Sweden).

1915