Volymer — Lars Englund, Volumes, 1966-67 © Lars Englund. Photo: Eustachy Kossakowski

Lars Englund

4.6 2005 – 4.9 2005

Stockholm

This is the most extensive and comprehensive exhibition ever to have been held of the sculptor Lars Englund’s unique oeuvre in Swedish art. Visitors will encounter a poetry of form, space and weightlessness. In one of the galleries his Support Structure from the 1960s has been reconstructed – a billowing cloud that spreads throughout the room. Moreover, the exhibition will feature a large number of his weightless and intricate sculptures, sketches, early paintings and objects.

Lars Englund (b. 1933) embarked on his own road in the 1960s, inspired by the materials of modern industry – plastic, rubber, concrete and, later on, carbon fibre. Using these raw materials he has created sensuously expanding structures where the materials take on a life of their own. The exhibition spans from the swelling rubber shapes of the 1960s, through the quirky experiments with organic shapes in the 1970s and ’80s, to entirely contemporary works. These playful explorations of the basic elements of sculpture oscillate stupendously between the micro and macro perspectives, with their endlessly growing formations. Today, Englund is considered to be one of the most formally adept pioneers of Swedish 20th century art. Over the years, he has had acclaimed exhibitions in Venice, Paris, Warsaw and New York.

Not many of us are aware that we have a few of his smallest creations in our wallets: the terse, stylised 50 öre and one krona coins launched in 1976.