JAN HÅFSTRÖM (FÖDD 1937). Tin Box.

Wood, sheet metal, nails and steel wire, 45 x 39 cm. Signed and numbered Jan Håfström VII.

Done in 1988‑89.

PROVENANCE
Doctor Bengt Herulf (1922‑2005), Stockholm.
Swedish private collection.

EXHIBITED
Moderna Museet, Stockholm, “Jan Håfström”, 12 November 1994‑8 January 1995, cat. number 209.

Ever since the 1960s, Jan Håfström has been one of Sweden's most important and significant artists and a central figure in Swedish art and cultural life. After graduating from the Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm, he painted “The Forest”, 1968 and “Grandmother”, 1972, both of which have become classics and have long been in the collection of Moderna Museet.

He traveled to New York in the 70s and started a dialogue with all the new ideas in art, such as abstract expressionism and postminimalism, but also the experimental film, dance and music influenced him, He met many artists, among them Öjvind Fahlström.

When Jan Håfström returned to Sweden and shared what he had seen and experienced in New York. He resurrected new ideas and artistry of the time, with deep dives into history and his own texts and abstract works, such as the current work in the auction, typical of his important works from that time.

Jan Håfström has often broken up, tried and tested new ideas, and moved on, more vitally than almost any other Swedish artist. He has not allowed himself to be constrained by conventions and boundaries. He has alternated between figurative and abstract painting, made film, sculptures and even been active as an art critic.

Jan Håfström has represented Sweden four (!) times at the Venice Art Biennale (1980, 1990, 2003, and 2009) here, which few and even any other Swedish artists have done. He has had numerous solo exhibitions at museums and is represented at, among others, the Nationalmuseum and the Modern Museum in Stockholm, Kalmar Art Museum and Norrköping Art Museum. Member of the Danish Arts Council.

In 2007, he received the Swedish Fine Arts Fund's Great Scholarship. The motivation was:
“Jan Håfström receives the scholarship for a long and pioneering work in his own practice, where he has been one of the foremost in Swedish art life for four decades. Furthermore, because he has been a representative of Swedish art countless times in important international contexts, but also because here at home he has been a source of inspiration and support for many younger colleagues. Jan Håfström is a sublime interpreter of the most human emotions.“.