Tom Krestesen

Stockholms Auktionsverk has been entrusted with presenting an exclusive selection of works by the artist Tom Krestesen. Born in Kolding, Denmark, in 1927, he moved to Sweden at the age of 21 and studied from 1950 to 1956 at the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm. Several influential teachers shaped his artistic development, including Sven X-et Eriksson with his expressive social engagement, Olle Nyman’s form-conscious classicism, and Bror Hjorth’s attention to volume. What makes Tom Krestesen's art so distinctive is his ability to merge these diverse influences, creating paintings filled with darkness, desire, and decay, yet marked by a sense of calm clarity.

Krestesen's work is deeply rooted in the visual worlds of the Renaissance and Baroque periods, particularly in its corporeality, architectural structure, and drama, but it is also distinctly modern. His art shares strong affinities with the intensity and presence of expressionist Chaïm Soutine, as well as with Francis Bacon’s depiction of bodies, spaces, and movement. Like a French Nouveau Realist, Tom Krestesen also incorporated found objects into his art—doors, tabletops, and other materials rich with their own stories and textures.

One of the most striking features of Krestesen’s paintings is their depth and darkness, achieved through his method of rubbing ink into the wood in multiple layers. This process makes the image an integral part of the wood’s fibers, with the subject appearing illuminated from within, even amid the blackness.

The selection of paintings showcases the various themes and genres that Krestesen explored: grand biblical scenes, a series of portraits where faces emerge from the darkness of history, still lifes in which objects take on a life of their own, and vast landscapes filled with space and light. These different subjects allowed Krestesen to delve into and express a range of experiences and emotions, yet all are united by his intense search for the essence of things and existence.

Tom Krestesen's works are represented in numerous public and private collections across Sweden and the Nordic region, including Moderna Museet and Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen, the National Gallery in Oslo, the Reykjavík Art Museum, the Gothenburg Museum of Art, Borås Art Museum, Norrköping Art Museum, and Västerås Art Museum.

Tom Krestesen passed away in 2017, and the paintings now on offer come from his family