SVEN JONSON. Still life, oil on Board, signed and dated 1929.

a verso exhibition label from Liljevalch's Halmstad group 60 years 1989 and Amos Andersson 6/10-26/11 1989 Föreningen Nutidskonst's 50-year anniversary exhibition. Dimensions: 24x37 cm.

“We will make a fool of ourselves by bringing such horrible things." The exhibition organized by Halland's Handicrafts District, which was inaugurated on 20 June 1929 and which presented crafts, industry and handicrafts, was complemented by an art exhibition. Commissioner for this was Egon Östlund. Among other things, he had to present proposals to the exhibition committee on what could be shown. These did not all go down well as the quote above from one of the committee members indicates.

A perusal of the criticism the Halmstad group received during its first year shows scattered bursts of opinion. Many times the writing observers were incomprehensible to what they saw.

Sven Jonson works at this time with representational painting with a post-cubist touch and abstract compositions. The painting Bandyspelaren (today at the Mjellby Art Museum) belongs to the former. Sports motifs became popular at this time among modernists who saw sports as a symbol of the modern world. Hand in hand with this was the interest in the technological progress of the time. Cars and flying machines were admired and depicted.
The auction's painting, which is a splendid example of Jonson's non-representational painting from the time of the Halmstad Group's painting, belongs to the latter. Before he converted to Surrealism, he executed and exhibited entirely concretist painting. In 1930 he also exhibited at Otto G. Carlsund's Art Concret exhibition in Stockholm.
The auction's painting can be counted as an important work for the artist. It has been shown at major exhibitions as well as depicted in literature on more than one occasion.

Litt: Bosson, Viveka, et al.: Halmstad-Berlin-Paris 1920-1930, Halmstad, 1984, the work illustrated on page 246.
Halmstad Group 1948 No. 116.