JÖRGEN LINDGREN. “Set up”, oil on canvas, signed.

Day dimensions 55,5 x 46,5 cm. Frame dimensions 57 x 48 cm.

Jörgen Lindgren (1927—1998) was active as a painter, cartoonist, graphic artist and illustrator with strong roots in Gothenburg's art life. He studied at the Craft Society's School from 1944 to 1948 and then at Valand Art School from 1950 to 1951. Study trips to the Netherlands, Belgium, Norway and France helped to broaden his artistic frames of reference in the early years.

Lindgren participated in several significant group exhibitions in the post-war period, including Young Graphics at Lorensberg in 1949 and exhibitions with Gothenburg painters in Eskilstuna, Borås and Ulricehamn. In 1955 he obtained first prize in the competition for the decoration for the People's House in Trollhättan, marking an important position in public art.

His activity came to unite free artistic work with pedagogy. He worked as a teacher at the Swedish Craft Association's School from 1949 to 1975 and, in parallel, a special teacher in freehand drawing at Chalmers University of Technology from 1954 to 1975. This combination of artistic and technical discipline is reflected in his idiom, which is often characterized by clear structure, conscious composition and an interest in the expressiveness of lines.

Lindgren executed numerous public decorations, including works for the Glass Museum in Växjö, the Water Treatment Plant in Lackarebäck, the Småland Museum and an extensive non-depicting mural in Medborgarhuset in Högsbotorp. He is represented at the Röhsska Museum, Moderna museet, Gothenburg Museum of Art, Småland Museum and Nationalmuseum, where also bookbands made in collaboration with Nils Lindes Kgl. Court book binders are included in the collections.

His artistry moves between the figurative and the non-figurative, with a consistent emphasis on form, line and surface, and constitutes a significant contribution to West Swedish post-war painting.