Gustav Bolin gives us a summer beach scene, a moment from the summer of 1957 in Antibes, full of life and gaiety with a palette bathed in Mediterranean light.
Oil on canvas


Signed and dated 56 lower left


Dimensions: 89 x 116 cm


With frame: 103 x 130 cm
"Between figuration and abstraction, his art is a perpetual search for independence and harmony. His characters move us, his labyrinths stun us, his lights soothe us: each painting is a singular adventure that cannot leave the attentive observer indifferent.", Bertrand Delanoë - Preface to the Gustave Bolin exhibition at the Hôtel de Ville in Paris in 2006.

Gustav Bolin, a sumptuous colorist

In this beach scene located in Antibes, Gustav Bolin's palette is bathed in Mediterranean light. The clarity radiates across the entire surface of the canvas. Bright colors where yellow and pink predominate punctuated by a few spots of blue, rust, bright orange and green...

The art of Gustav Bolin, between figuration and abstraction.

It takes some effort of deciphering to assign a meaning to these indefinite contours and then the motifs represented appear, the elements of the decor. Painted with hasty strokes, his style does not belong to any movement, but it can be situated between abstraction and figuration.

Bibliography

Painter of Swedish and Russian origin, born in Stockholm and died in Antibes.
Gustav Bolin descended from a family of goldsmiths who supplied the court of the Tsars in Saint Petersburg, then the Swedish royal family for three generations.
Gustav Bolin moved to France in 1921 and opened himself to art in the effervescence of Parisian cultural life. He studied under Emile Othon Friesz at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière.
After spending a year in Stockholm in 1940, Bolin returned to France in occupied Paris and then stayed in the south of France, in Valence and Marseille where he painted numerous landscapes alongside Charles Rollier, Alexandre Garbell and Pierre Tal Coat.

In 1943, he made a "pilgrimage-journey" in the Aix region, in search of Cézanne, then decided to return to Paris to settle in the studio lent to him by Pierre Tal-Coat located in the Plaisance district. This was the time of his first encounter with Picasso and many artists in cafés in the Montparnasse district, Le Dôme and La Coupole, and in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, in the famous Café de Flore.
Gustav Bolin also frequented Diego Giacometti who found him a studio near his own, on the rue du Moulin-Vert.
He formed very friendly ties with Nicolas de Staël.

His influences

The influence of Cubism will be decisive, this approach will play a role of regulator of forms, will establish a search for synthesis, will give the taste for concision and will strengthen the style to its quintessence. His teaching will be based on this duality which implies the eloquence of lyricism and the temperance of reflection.
Far from being carried away by feeling, it will be appropriate to give a plastic unity to the forms retained, harmony no longer being the consequence of a code but the logic of forms inspired by reality and which are then a sort of sensitive mirror of it.
Gustav Bolin is a discreet, secretive artist, much too much for his fame, who will lead an ascetic life without excess.

His exhibitions

In 1949, he concluded contracts with several national and international galleries, notably in Stockholm, but also in New York and Tokyo. In 1973, the Musée Galliera in Paris exhibited a large collection of his paintings alongside Bengt Lindström.

Sharing his time between his studio in Paris and that of Antibes, Gustav Bolin worked by adapting spontaneously to the place. He died in Antibes in August 1999.

Outside of France, he exhibits in many countries: Belgium, Italy, Sweden, Japan, United States, Canada.

Exhibitions

France, Belgium, Italy

1948, Pierre Loeb Gallery, Paris
1950, Galerie Art Vivant, Paris; Galerie du Haut-Pavé, Paris (with Bazaine, Nicolas de Staël, Estève, Lapicque, Tal Coat; “Expression and Creation”, Galerie Art Vivant, with de Staël, Villon, Bissière, Chatel, Cottavoz, Estève, Garbell, Germain, Lapicque, Masson, Miro, Poliakoff, Tal Coat
1957, “Convergence”, Galerie Art Vivant, Paris, with G. Asse, Germain, Debré, Lanskoy, Lesieur, Rollier, de Staël
1959, Galerie de l'Ancienne Comédie, Paris, group of 25 painters
1960, Galerie Coard, Paris; Kriegel Gallery, Paris
1963, Galerie Charpentier, Paris; Kriegel Gallery, Paris
1965, Kriegel Gallery, Paris
1966, Kriegel Gallery, Paris
1969, Septentrion Gallery, Lille
1970, Renée Laporte Gallery, Antibes; Menton Biennale
1973-1974, Musée Galliera, Paris (preface by Georges Boudaille)
1975, Art Streaming Gallery, Paris
1977, “The Adventure of Pierre Loeb”, Museum of Modern Art, Paris
1979, Ixelles Museum, Brussels
1980, Coard Gallery, Paris
1981, “Fiac”, LeifStahle stand, Paris (Bolin, Germain, Lindström)
1982, Swedish Cultural Center, Paris
1983, Coard Gallery, Paris
1985, Coard Gallery, Paris
1988, Coard Gallery, Paris
1989, Coard Gallery, Paris
1990, “10 days with Sweden”, Grande Arche, La Défense
1991, Désiré Gallery, Lyon
1992, Coard Gallery, Paris
1993, Swedish Art Association of Paris
1995, “Retrospective”, Galerie Dionne, Paris
1999, Galerie Nicolas Deman, Paris; “Bolin, Lindström, Cobra”, Ghironda Foundation, Bologna
2006, “Gustav Bolin, a Swedish painter from Paris”, Paris City Hall
2006, Retrospective, A Tempera Gallery, The Louvre of Antiquaries, Paris
2007, “Gustav Bolin, non-figurative period”, Galerie A Tempera, The Louvre des Antiquaires, Paris
2009, “Gustav Bolin, pastels”, Galerie Chauvy, Paris
2010, “Gustav Bolin, Non-figurative Paintings, Unpublished Works 1970-1980”, Galerie Pierre-Francois Garcier, Paris

Sweden

1970, Eklunds Konsthandel, Umeå
1976, Sollefteås Konstförening; Stockholm; Galleri Glimminge, Ystad
1977, Konstgården, Helsingborg
1978, Galleri Olga S, Stockholm
1981, International Art expo SIAE, Stockholm; Galleri Fågelsång Helsingborg; Galleri Eklund Umeå
1982, Galleri Fågelsång, Helsingborg; International Art expo SIAE, Stockholm
1983, Galleri Östermalm Stockholm; Agardsgalleriet, Båstad
1985, International Art expo SIAE, Stockholm
1987, Galleri Scandinavia, Gothenburg
1989, Galleri Östermalm, Stockholm
1991, Galleri Scandinavia, Gothenburg

Japan

1964, Nichido Gallery, Tokyo
1967, International Figurative Exhibition, Tokyo
1968, Nichido Gallery, Tokyo
1969, Nichido Gallery, Tokyo
1969, Tokyo Biennale, Tokyo International Salon

USA

1963, David Findley, New York
1967, David Findley, New York
1968, David Findley, New York

Canada

1983, Trevisan Gallery, Edmonton

Bibliography

• Raymond Nacenta and Alexandre Garbell, School of Paris – 1963, Editions de la Galerie Charpentier Paris, 1963.

• Gustav Bolin, preface by Georges Boudaille, Musée Galliera, Paris, 1973, 34 p.

• Jean-Jacques Lévêque, Gustav Bolin, Oak/Art Saint Honoré, Paris, 1990, 176 p.

• Gustav Bolin, a Swedish painter from Paris, Mairie de Paris, 2006, 39 p.

• Lydia Harembourg, Dictionary of painters of the School of Paris, 1945-1965, Éditions Ides et Calendes, Neuchâtel, 1993.