SVERRE ERIXSON (1932). Metron, Paris.

Watercolour, 32 x 26 cm, including frame 45 x 40 cm. Signed Sverre and dated -95.

PROVENANCE
Swedish Club, Paris. Donated by the artist in 1996.

Sverre Erixson was born in Stockholm as the son of artist Sven “X:et” Erixson and writer Ingeborg Erixson. The home was characterized by art and culture, which laid the foundation for Sverre's artistic trajectory. After matriculation, he first studied violin in Rome, but a course in radiotelegraphy in Stockholm brought him to sea for two years. During these travels, he painted and drew in the cabin and in ports all over the world—experiences that later came to shape his pictorial world.

Samples from this time were sent to the Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm, where he was admitted in 1960. During his studies, he studied with Bror Hjorth and Bror Marklund, and supplemented his studies with stays at Gerlesborg School.

Sverre Erixson made his debut in 1963 at Stockholmsmässan. This was followed by numerous group and solo exhibitions, including in Båstad, Halmstad and at galleries such as Petra and Halmstads Konstsalong. His first exhibition at the influential gallery Färg och Form in Stockholm in 1967 was a breakthrough. He subsequently exhibited extensively in Sweden — from Gothenburg to Östersund — and internationally, debuting in France in 1970 in Antibes.

Erixson's expression is characterized by a free colorism and a confident play of form. He works mainly in acrylics, often diluted for a lighter and more airy expression, as well as in wood reliefs painted with lacquer paint. His subject world is often drawn from urban life — especially from the Paris metro, where the people, lights and arched rooms inspired a series of paintings. “It only became like that when it was cold outside,” he himself has said. “One can study the people on the opposite platform, and within the ellipsoids one can fantasize about their existence. “

Sverre Erixson has had a long and consistent career as an artist, with many appreciated exhibitions both in Sweden and abroad. At the Swedish club he exhibited in 1996, invited by the club's art association. After the exhibition, he donated the watercolour which is now part of the club's collection — a work that clearly reflects his peculiar combination of everyday poetics and form-awareness.

All lots in this themed auction sold without reserve.