CARL KYLBERG. “The Mercy”.
Oil on canvas, 122 x 100 cm. Signed and on verso CK. With frame by wife Ruth Kylberg.
“Colors are noise - color is music. Art is a secret. To find it requires a world of patience, courage and consistency. No one can ever reveal the secret of a great art”.
So writes Carl Kylberg in his diary notes. Despite his efforts time and again to decipher his art and describe his artistic endeavor, the written word does not do Kylberg's art justice. To understand his intentions, one must turn to the paintings, which strike the viewer like a blow in the solar plexus. It is impossible to defend against their authenticity, sensuality and power. With his light-saturated painting with soaring shapes, hot colour schemes and an often religious undertone, Carl Kylberg created a whole new kind of art. For this fearless poet of color, the colorite was spiritual forms and expressions of the soul. He even went so far as to refer to all his works as self-portraits.
Carl Kylberg is considered one of the portal figures in 20th century Swedish art, and today his place in Swedish art history is obvious. But that hasn't always been the case. Like all distinctive artists, Kylberg was thwarted and misunderstood. Some art critics spoke of disintegration and modern decay, others about his art being ragged. This culminated in the controversy surrounding the 1937 painting “The Upbreak”, when Arthur Engberg, the Ecclesiastical Minister, forbade the Nationalmuseum to acquire the painting on the grounds that it lacked “dignity”, which took Kylberg very hard.
Kylberg was the genuine autodidact. For only one semester he pursued studies for Carl Wilhelmson at Valand Art School in Gothenburg. Otherwise, he raised himself to be an artist. His sights were initially set on becoming an architect, and his studies took him to Gothenburg, Stockholm and Berlin. In the German art metropolis, he became an avid consumer of culture, filling his leisure time with concert and museum visits and studies in classical literature. Here he also made his great discovery - that he was meant as an artist. At first he executed pastels with biblical motifs, and over the course of his long career he came to continually return to these, albeit most often using oil as a technique. Kylberg's artistic success came rather late in life. His first solo exhibition was held in Stockholm in 1926, when the artist was approaching the age of fifty. After decades of modest success and a struggle to earn a living, he and wife Ruth were now able to enjoy greater financial freedom.
At this spring's Moderna auction, Stockholms Auktionsverk has the pleasure of selling no less than three central works in Kylberg's production, all three with a distinctive luminosity and vitality.
Light had a special meaning in Kylberg's allegorical and religious compositions, in the form of a pervasive spirituality. Nowhere is this as evident as in the painting “The Mercy”, which, with its bright colors, in which the yellow denomination borders on neon, almost washes light over the viewer. Kylberg performed several similar compositions under the pressure of the apocalyptic moods of World War II. In the painting we see how the people on the ground, with outstretched arms, receive love, hope and peace from the hovering angel. Kylberg described this “ray light” in his notes, a light that conveys vigor and calm. Carl Kylberg's art was highly personal, saturated in colour and almost luminous. The luminosity of his paintings strikes the viewer even today, capturing a reflex of the eternal.Show more
Condition
Repairs. For further information, please contact victoria.svederberg@auktionsverket.se.
Resale right
Yes
Artist/designer
Carl Kylberg (1878–1952)
Estimate
Time, Location
Auction House
Oil on canvas, 122 x 100 cm. Signed and on verso CK. With frame by wife Ruth Kylberg.
“Colors are noise - color is music. Art is a secret. To find it requires a world of patience, courage and consistency. No one can ever reveal the secret of a great art”.
So writes Carl Kylberg in his diary notes. Despite his efforts time and again to decipher his art and describe his artistic endeavor, the written word does not do Kylberg's art justice. To understand his intentions, one must turn to the paintings, which strike the viewer like a blow in the solar plexus. It is impossible to defend against their authenticity, sensuality and power. With his light-saturated painting with soaring shapes, hot colour schemes and an often religious undertone, Carl Kylberg created a whole new kind of art. For this fearless poet of color, the colorite was spiritual forms and expressions of the soul. He even went so far as to refer to all his works as self-portraits.
Carl Kylberg is considered one of the portal figures in 20th century Swedish art, and today his place in Swedish art history is obvious. But that hasn't always been the case. Like all distinctive artists, Kylberg was thwarted and misunderstood. Some art critics spoke of disintegration and modern decay, others about his art being ragged. This culminated in the controversy surrounding the 1937 painting “The Upbreak”, when Arthur Engberg, the Ecclesiastical Minister, forbade the Nationalmuseum to acquire the painting on the grounds that it lacked “dignity”, which took Kylberg very hard.
Kylberg was the genuine autodidact. For only one semester he pursued studies for Carl Wilhelmson at Valand Art School in Gothenburg. Otherwise, he raised himself to be an artist. His sights were initially set on becoming an architect, and his studies took him to Gothenburg, Stockholm and Berlin. In the German art metropolis, he became an avid consumer of culture, filling his leisure time with concert and museum visits and studies in classical literature. Here he also made his great discovery - that he was meant as an artist. At first he executed pastels with biblical motifs, and over the course of his long career he came to continually return to these, albeit most often using oil as a technique. Kylberg's artistic success came rather late in life. His first solo exhibition was held in Stockholm in 1926, when the artist was approaching the age of fifty. After decades of modest success and a struggle to earn a living, he and wife Ruth were now able to enjoy greater financial freedom.
At this spring's Moderna auction, Stockholms Auktionsverk has the pleasure of selling no less than three central works in Kylberg's production, all three with a distinctive luminosity and vitality.
Light had a special meaning in Kylberg's allegorical and religious compositions, in the form of a pervasive spirituality. Nowhere is this as evident as in the painting “The Mercy”, which, with its bright colors, in which the yellow denomination borders on neon, almost washes light over the viewer. Kylberg performed several similar compositions under the pressure of the apocalyptic moods of World War II. In the painting we see how the people on the ground, with outstretched arms, receive love, hope and peace from the hovering angel. Kylberg described this “ray light” in his notes, a light that conveys vigor and calm. Carl Kylberg's art was highly personal, saturated in colour and almost luminous. The luminosity of his paintings strikes the viewer even today, capturing a reflex of the eternal.Show more
Condition
Repairs. For further information, please contact victoria.svederberg@auktionsverket.se.
Resale right
Yes
Artist/designer
Carl Kylberg (1878–1952)
Estimate
Time, Location
Auction House
