430. IVAN IVARSON. Before thunder, oil on Board, 60 x 60 cm.

IVAN IVARSON 1900–1939 Before thunder Signed I. Ivarson. Made in 1935. Oil on Board, 60 x 60 cm.

PROVENIEN Foreman Adolf O. Ström LITERATURE Arne Stubelius, Ivan Ivarson, illustrated in color p. 81, as well as illustrated on the cover of the book.
Contemporary Swedish painting, part 2 (1950) Ivan Ivarson's artistry is characterized by a particularly intense use of color which, regardless of the choice of motif, has come to be associated with his paintings. Despite an all-too-short lifetime, his name is firmly anchored in the Swedish artist sky, perhaps primarily as one of the Gothenburg colorists. His outgoing, passionate and passionate relationship with art, with the famous quote "I would like to eat colour" is like no other. The auction's painting, "Before the Thunder", shows proof of an astute expressionism and an unfailing feeling for the composition of color chords. The painting, which is featured on the front cover of his extensive artist biography, has never before been offered for sale at auction.

Ivarson grew up in Gothenburg and studied during the 1920s under Tor Bjurström at the Valand Academy of Art. After study trips to France and Italy, he moved to Elsinore and painted for Carl Kylberg, whose glowing color treatment and expressionist expression left a great impression on the young Ivarson's artistry.

Despite the life-affirming art, there was a darkness within him, and his life was marked at times by alcoholism and depression. However, there were periods of deep happiness, where creation and harmony were at the center. At the time of the creation of "Before Thunder", Ivarson abstained from alcohol for a long time, while he struggled with cravings. Perhaps it is this inner struggle that the painting refers to. The relationship with his wife and sculptor Märta Taube, whom he had married seven years earlier, was strained and the wife had recently moved to Australia. Is Ivarson giving us here a memory of a happier time?

Ivarson often let the people play a subordinate role vis-à-vis the environment. In "Before the Thunder", however, the woman on the left in the picture plane is an important building block, picking what looks like apples from a golden tree. Her white-spotted dress and hat are contrasted effectively against the swirling sky that gossips about approaching troubled times. Light stands against darkness, heat against cold. You can almost feel the inner storms that must have been raging inside the artist. Despite the dramatic undertone, Ivarson offers the viewer an unusual display of driven square chords and a euphoria of color that few others succeed in.