LINDSTROM, BENGT (1925-2008)

**PRICE ON APPLICATION**
 
"Portrait Of A Lady" (c.1960)
oil on canvas
117 x 78.5cm
signed lower left
*purchased directly from the artist
*private collection, Sweden
*private collection, Melbourne
 
Lindström was a prominent Swedish Abstract Expressionist. In 1944, he moved to Stockholm to study under the Swedish painter Isaac Grünewald. He also participated in drawing lessons given by Aksel Jörgensen at the Copenhagen Fine Arts School in Denmark. In 1946, Bengt travelled to the United States to study at the Art Institute of Chicago and was inspired there by the work of De Kooning. In 1947, he moved to Paris, where he studied under the French painters André Lhote and Fernand Léger. Bengt was granted a scholarship by the Swedish magazine Aftontidningen, which helped him move into a workshop in Arcueil, France. In 1953, he returned to Paris, to a workshop in Rueil-Malmaison, where he continued the development of his unique style of painting. Soon after, he started collaborating with the Rive Gauche Gallery in Paris and Tooth & Sons Gallery in London. He developed his most known figurative art with masks, gods and monsters in France at Savigny-sur-Orge. As from 1968, he started dividing his time between his workshop in France and his atelier in Sundsvall, Sweden.
 
Lindström was influenced by and often based his work on the ethnic traditions of the Nordic world and Sámi culture. He was also influenced by the paintings of the COBRA group, active in the period Bengt studied in Copenhagen. COBRA was represented in Copenhagen by Asger Jorn and includes the famous artist Karel Appel, artists who were about 10 years older than Lindström. Unlike the COBRA group, Lindström used his paint by the bucket, with heavy applications of mostly primary and secondary saturated colours, using his fingers as well as big brushes.
 
Throughout his life exhibitions were held in Europe and the United States, earning him a solid reputation among the public and his peers. Bengt Lindström's work is exhibited in museums all over the world.