VALTER GIBSON (1928-2002). Composition, acrylic on canvas, loose canvas, unsigned.

Approx. 135x193 cm

HISTORIAN:
Valter Gibson: Yeah.
- from Valand - Nemes - Group 54 to Kulturhuset

Stockholms Auktionsverk has been entrusted with the sale of the estate of Valter Gibson, the artist who attended Valand Art Academy with Endre Nemes as a teacher.

Valter Gibson was born in 1928 in Lycksele, grew up in Stockholm and lived until his death in 2002 in Hallstavik. From 1952 to 1955 Gibson studied painting at Valand Art School in Gothenburg, with the prominent artist Endre Nemes as his teacher. Gibson belonged to “generation 47-55” and was a member of artists' association Group 54. It was founded by Nemes students who opposed the Gothenburg Artists' Club, which was dominated by the Gothenburg Scholars, and who opposed the new abstract and surrealist art.

In his youth, Valter Gibson was inspired by artists such as Evert Lundquist, Roland Kempe and Olle Nyman. But above all he was inspired by Endre Nemes and became perhaps the artist who most faithfully followed him in his footsteps. Gibson was both a follower and a further developer of Nemes's painting. The kinship is clear; the myriad of form parts, the practice of pictorial fragments joined together in ornamental collage form, and the dominance of black. 80's production moved more towards a simplified and direct design language.

The color gamut of Gibson's works varies from black and brown to yellow and blue tones. He paints in a vigorous expressionist style, sometimes in a few austere colors and shades, sometimes in crackling colorite. He worked with an assortment of oil paints, acrylics, collages, gouache paints, canvas and paper.

The paintings can be seen as X-ray or Rorscharch images - a series of fragmentary images with nonfigurative symmetrical ink plumes and a pictorial world of abstract swarming and flow of figures. Many of Gibson's paintings are structured as collages and are reminiscent of icons or altar cabinets. A painting can contain unexpected shapes and multiple events at the same time. Gibson himself characterized the art as figurative expressionism.

“I have a passion for collage and that's how it got to be. Perhaps this is an unusual collage technique. An essential feature of my painting art is to seek an attachment to time. That's the intent of my art. The meaning is not completely clear as long as a painting emerges. Only when the work is finished is the meaning finally formed, I paint my way to a content and the images are created within me.” I often use smaller paintings and sketches that share my works, working with monumentality and pictorial impact appeals to me” (Valter Gibson).

Valter Gibson was the artist who prioritized painting over exhibiting. Although he was very prolific, sales came second and he kept many works himself. Gibson was well known among artist colleagues and art critics but the artistic integrity made him less well known among the general public. Gibson had been exhibiting sporadically since the 60s.

Solo exhibitions: Gallery 54 in Gothenburg 1959; Borås Museum 1960, De Unga in Stockholm 1964, Södertälje Konsthall 1964, Norrtälje Konsthall 1987, Upplands Konstmuseum 1988.

Collection exhibitions: Lübeck 1955, Bochum 1955, Edinburgh 1955, Jönköpings Museum 1958, Landskrona Museum 1958, Sveagalleriet in Stockholm 1962, Silkeborg 1963, Oslo 1963, Reykjavik 1963, Helsinki 1963, Umeå 1963, Moderna Museet 1963, Unga Teknikare 1958, 1960, 1962, Konstakademie 1967.
Kulturhuset 1988: A manifestation and gathering exhibition of former Valands pupils of Endre Nemes. The intention was to highlight a side of Swedish art that is considered to have become too neglected. Other participants Erland Brand, Leif Ericson, Sven Erik Johansson, Mirjam Liljegren, Bengt Lundin, Acke Oldenburg, Bengt Olsson, Ronny Reyman, Ulf Trotzig and Jörgen Zetterquist.

Represented at Nationalmuseum, Moderna museet and Gothenburg Museum of Art, among others

SOURCES:
Norrtelje Tidning 27 February 1987, “Slutmumlat för Valter”, Sara Bergqvist.
UNT Uppland, 9 March 1988, “Hallstavikskonstnar Exhibits in Uppsala”, Sune Walfridsson.
UNT Kultur, March 26, 1988, “Roreschachbilder av vår presenttid”, Cristina Karlstam.
Upplands Konstmuseum, 20 March-17 April, Elisabeth Liljedahl and Dennis Wilhelmsson.
Norrtelje Tidning 23 October 1992, “The artist who would rather paint than exhibit”, Elisabet Olsson.
Norrtelje Tidning February 16, 2005, “Abstract pictures with rhythm and movement”, Margareta Levin.
Norrtelje Tidning, “Here it was art up the walls”, Elisabet Olsson.