c/o Bror Hjorths Hus

The artist was Bror Hjorth (1894-1968). A couple of years earlier, in 1932, he had started the group, Färg och Form with some other artists and within a few years, the group became a joint stock company with its own gallery. This artist-owned gallery came into being in an increasingly hard economic climate on the continent, which had repercussions for Swedish society in general and for artists in particular. Färg och Form promoted a new, dramatic, richly colourful way of painting, which ranged from the intimate, through Die Neue Sachlichkeit or magic realism, and naïve art to the socially engaged art of Sven X:et Erixon and Albin Amelin. Together with the Gothenburg colourists, the Färg och Form group dominated Swedish painting between the wars. The gallery, Färg och Form, existed up until this year (2002) when it closed down.

Now, in cooperation with Moderna Museet, Bror Hjorth’s House is showing work from the period when Färg och Form was established. About 30 works by those artists who were involved from the start have been borrowed from the museum’s collection.

Vera Nilsson was asked to join the Färg och form group, but in practice this was impossible because the artists’ wives were expected to keep an eye on the gallery and manage its practical side. For a single mother, membership was impossible in the long run. Vera Nilsson and Siri Derkert have nevertheless been included in the exhibition to give a broader picture of 1930’s Swedish expressionism,

The artists: Albin Amelin, Victor Axelson, Gideon Börje, Ture Dahlö, Siri Derkert, Martin Emond, Sven Erixon, Lars Florén, Hjalmar Grahn, Eric Hallström, Bror Hjorth, Ivan Ivarson, Hilding Linnqvist, Nils Möllerberg, Axel Nilsson, Vera Nilsson, Wiliam Nording, torsten Palm, Patrik Reutersvärd, Fritiof Schuldt, Gunnar Svenson and Hug Zuhr.

In conjunction with the exhibition, Moderna Museet c/o Bror Hjorth’s House will celebrate the latter’s 25th anniversary as a public art museum.