Inga Pentén

Some artistic careers possess all the essential elements – the education, the exhibitions, the craftsmanship, and the courage to evolve – yet still remain in the shadows. Inga Pentén is such an artist. This auction brings together around thirty works spanning her entire production: from early academic life studies to a later, freer visual language where colour and form are given increasing space – and where political engagement gradually takes on a more prominent role.
Within her oeuvre, it is nevertheless the works from her years in Paris that immediately draw the eye. During this period, her painting moves toward Abstract Expressionism, characterised by bold colours and liberated energy. Pentén lived in Paris during the early 1960s, at a time when the city was still an unquestioned hub of the international art world. She held three solo exhibitions: at the Tessininstitutet (1960), at Galerie des Beaux-Arts (1962 and 1963), and – as a particularly significant marker – at the historic Galerie Bernheim-Jeune (1965). These credentials firmly place her within her contemporary context and make it easy to understand why her work deserves rediscovery.
After the Paris years, her artistic direction shifts. Over time, a strong engagement with social, environmental, and women’s rights issues becomes increasingly evident, accompanied by a genuine concern for humanity and a sharp awareness of global injustices. Reflections on the role of women and female emancipation shape her expression, where motifs often seem to carry a double vision: one eye directed toward the outside world and one toward inner life. In that very tension – between the private and the political, between presence and critique – a distinct character emerges that makes Pentén difficult to place within a single category, yet all the more compelling to follow.
Another key to her work is mobility. Pentén’s study travels extended from France (Paris and Brittany) across Europe – and as far as Japan. This breadth is reflected in her artistic range: here we find both the discipline of classical training and a curiosity toward more distant influences, making her development particularly rewarding to experience in a concentrated selection. At the same time, she remained firmly anchored in Sweden. Pentén was a friend of Siri Derkert, yet her work reveals a voice that stands confidently on its own – at times lyrical and intimate, at others more investigative.
Inga Pentén studied at Otte Sköld’s and Signe Barth’s painting schools, at the Gerlesborg School, and attended the Royal Academy of Fine Arts’ autumn course in 1959. She also studied at painting schools in Paris and Brittany, and deepened her practice in printmaking (etching and lithography), including at Johnny Friedlaender’s studio in Paris in 1960. In addition to the Paris exhibitions mentioned above, she exhibited in Stockholm at Lilla Galleriet (1960), Gröna Paletten (1962, 1963 and 1965), and Galleri Mini (1967). In France, she also participated in an exhibition at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Pau. Her works are represented in numerous collections, including Nationalmuseum, Moderna Museet, the City of Stockholm, the Tessin Institute in Paris, and in Tokyo, as well as in several Swedish regional collections.
Inga Pentén rarely appears at auction, making this a unique opportunity to acquire her work.