LENA CRONQVIST. “The Black Mirror”.
Charcoal and oil temperature on canvas, 185 x 150,5 cm. Signed and dated L. CRONQVIST 1984.
EXHIBITED
Lena Cronqvist, Gallery I, Gothenburg, 1984
Lena Cronqvist. Retrospective and current, compiled by SAK for the Academy of Arts,
County Museum Gävle, m.fl. locations. 1987
Painters of Europe 80/ Eighty. The European Peintres, Wackenhallen, Strasbourg,
Kulturhuset, Stockholm, m.fl. places., 1988.
Lena Cronqvist, Norræna Húsid/Nordens Hus, Reykjavik, 1988.
Lena Cronqvist, Värmlands Museum, 1992, cat. no. 3.
Lena Cronqvist, Liljevalchs konsthall, Stockholm, 1994.
Lena Cronqvist, Vikingsberg Art Museum, Helsingborg, 1998.
LITERATURE
Nina Weibull, “On Art as the Necessity to Abandon the Given”, Lena
Cronqvist. Retrospective and current, exhibition catalogue, Konstakademie, 1987.
Ingela Lind, “The Painter”, chapter 6 “The painter and her model. The History of Art”, Lena
Cronqvist. Paintings 1964—1994, published by Galleri Lars Bohman, Stockholm, 1994.
Nina Weibull, Mirroring and Creation. A Study in Lena Cronqvist's “The Painter and Her
model”, akad. avh., Eidos nr 17, Writings from the Department of Art Sciences at
Stockholm University, Värnamo: Fälth & Hässler, 2006.
In the picture suite The Painter and Her Model, twenty large paintings executed between 1982 and 1986,
Lena Cronqvist makes visible and forms a thematic basis for artistic creation that
is hers. Initially, she is the workmanlike “painter” who, in a room where the wall is covered by
own sketches, handles drawing charcoal, brushes and color palette. Attentively, the “painter” directs his gaze
towards the viewer (who is herself, where she stands in front of the canvas). In several paintings she tries
to surround himself with various symbolic props, like whim: a red thread of yarn and an articulated wooden horse,
a trapped frog, large dark leaves that seem taken from collages by Matisse. The light is falling
like a thin blue film over things. But when the artist's self-image “Lena” turns his gaze towards
the hand mirror that serves as a tool in a painter's work process changes the picture space
dynamics: pressed against the “other side” of the mirror glass encounters a face that scares and
fascinates her. Outer concretion transitions into an inner, “magically” elevated reality. Genome
image suite captured the artist's attention by themes such as self-image. Glance and mirror,
female body and shadow, mask and solidification. In step with the depiction of corporeality
transitions into marble-white metaphysics — a guise that is the “painter” in the role of “her model” —
deepens the picture space and the light that now fills the room acquires the character of vibrating matter.
In The Black Mirror, the wall is highlighted by wide, dark ochre-yellow sweeps with hints of whitish
straws. Behind the “painter/model”, and by extension the hand holding the drawing charcoal, is visible
a pattern of free brush trails in dark cadmium red, dimly radiant ultramarine and
cadmium yellow; prominent sign for the act of creating. A glimpse of the picture space can be accommodated in it
opposite hand's mirror, but shunned by the blue darkness that fills the mirror room. Light
sweeps over one side of the body while brilliant sky blue (coelin) shadow draws the outline
over the head and neck of the figure, giving the waist and left arm a semblance of volume. Here it sits
“she” on her work stool, anchored in a body resembling a shell, an outer vessel for the inner
dynamism that is the hallmark of the artist.
Here are distant echoes of Albrecht Dürer's early exploration of the image of his naked self
as Act 1503, and Paula Modersohn-Becker who did the same in a suite of self-portraits
1906—1907. A more direct impulse to The Black Mirror can be seen in Henri Matisse's portrait
from 1913 (Hermitage) by the wife, in which Mrs. Matisse transforms into a magnificently outfitted,
confusingly smiling screen with empty black eye holes, a person transformed into characters and
fiction. In contrast to the portrait of Mrs. Matisse, the “painter/model” appears in The Black Mirror
testify to an intensified degree of existence.
Over the years, “The Black Mirror” has been exhibited at several exhibitions, both in Sweden and abroad. Having been in private ownership since 1984, Stockholms Auktionsverk is pleased to offer it on the art market for the first time ever.Show more
Condition
Slightly wavy at the edges, otherwise no remarks. For further information, please contact victoria.svederberg@auktionsverket.se.
Resale right
Yes
Artist/designer
Lena Cronqvist (Born 1938)
Estimate
Time, Location
Auction House
Charcoal and oil temperature on canvas, 185 x 150,5 cm. Signed and dated L. CRONQVIST 1984.
EXHIBITED
Lena Cronqvist, Gallery I, Gothenburg, 1984
Lena Cronqvist. Retrospective and current, compiled by SAK for the Academy of Arts,
County Museum Gävle, m.fl. locations. 1987
Painters of Europe 80/ Eighty. The European Peintres, Wackenhallen, Strasbourg,
Kulturhuset, Stockholm, m.fl. places., 1988.
Lena Cronqvist, Norræna Húsid/Nordens Hus, Reykjavik, 1988.
Lena Cronqvist, Värmlands Museum, 1992, cat. no. 3.
Lena Cronqvist, Liljevalchs konsthall, Stockholm, 1994.
Lena Cronqvist, Vikingsberg Art Museum, Helsingborg, 1998.
LITERATURE
Nina Weibull, “On Art as the Necessity to Abandon the Given”, Lena
Cronqvist. Retrospective and current, exhibition catalogue, Konstakademie, 1987.
Ingela Lind, “The Painter”, chapter 6 “The painter and her model. The History of Art”, Lena
Cronqvist. Paintings 1964—1994, published by Galleri Lars Bohman, Stockholm, 1994.
Nina Weibull, Mirroring and Creation. A Study in Lena Cronqvist's “The Painter and Her
model”, akad. avh., Eidos nr 17, Writings from the Department of Art Sciences at
Stockholm University, Värnamo: Fälth & Hässler, 2006.
In the picture suite The Painter and Her Model, twenty large paintings executed between 1982 and 1986,
Lena Cronqvist makes visible and forms a thematic basis for artistic creation that
is hers. Initially, she is the workmanlike “painter” who, in a room where the wall is covered by
own sketches, handles drawing charcoal, brushes and color palette. Attentively, the “painter” directs his gaze
towards the viewer (who is herself, where she stands in front of the canvas). In several paintings she tries
to surround himself with various symbolic props, like whim: a red thread of yarn and an articulated wooden horse,
a trapped frog, large dark leaves that seem taken from collages by Matisse. The light is falling
like a thin blue film over things. But when the artist's self-image “Lena” turns his gaze towards
the hand mirror that serves as a tool in a painter's work process changes the picture space
dynamics: pressed against the “other side” of the mirror glass encounters a face that scares and
fascinates her. Outer concretion transitions into an inner, “magically” elevated reality. Genome
image suite captured the artist's attention by themes such as self-image. Glance and mirror,
female body and shadow, mask and solidification. In step with the depiction of corporeality
transitions into marble-white metaphysics — a guise that is the “painter” in the role of “her model” —
deepens the picture space and the light that now fills the room acquires the character of vibrating matter.
In The Black Mirror, the wall is highlighted by wide, dark ochre-yellow sweeps with hints of whitish
straws. Behind the “painter/model”, and by extension the hand holding the drawing charcoal, is visible
a pattern of free brush trails in dark cadmium red, dimly radiant ultramarine and
cadmium yellow; prominent sign for the act of creating. A glimpse of the picture space can be accommodated in it
opposite hand's mirror, but shunned by the blue darkness that fills the mirror room. Light
sweeps over one side of the body while brilliant sky blue (coelin) shadow draws the outline
over the head and neck of the figure, giving the waist and left arm a semblance of volume. Here it sits
“she” on her work stool, anchored in a body resembling a shell, an outer vessel for the inner
dynamism that is the hallmark of the artist.
Here are distant echoes of Albrecht Dürer's early exploration of the image of his naked self
as Act 1503, and Paula Modersohn-Becker who did the same in a suite of self-portraits
1906—1907. A more direct impulse to The Black Mirror can be seen in Henri Matisse's portrait
from 1913 (Hermitage) by the wife, in which Mrs. Matisse transforms into a magnificently outfitted,
confusingly smiling screen with empty black eye holes, a person transformed into characters and
fiction. In contrast to the portrait of Mrs. Matisse, the “painter/model” appears in The Black Mirror
testify to an intensified degree of existence.
Over the years, “The Black Mirror” has been exhibited at several exhibitions, both in Sweden and abroad. Having been in private ownership since 1984, Stockholms Auktionsverk is pleased to offer it on the art market for the first time ever.Show more
Condition
Slightly wavy at the edges, otherwise no remarks. For further information, please contact victoria.svederberg@auktionsverket.se.
Resale right
Yes
Artist/designer
Lena Cronqvist (Born 1938)
Estimate
Time, Location
Auction House
