4 October - 9 November, 2008
Lars Bohman Gallery
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HANS WIGERT
Honungsslickaren ("The Honey Licker")

Lars Bohman Gallery has the pleasure to show its fourth solo show with the Swedish painter Hans Wigert. The exhibition consists of new paintings and drawings, as well as a selection of earlier and newer prints. In relation to the exhibition we are also publishing a catalogue entitled The Honey Licker.

Wigert has a special position in Swedish contemporary art. Both his technique and imagery stems from a late 19th century tradition established by Ernst Josefsson and CF Hill, that in recent years has been passed on to a younger generation of artists, such as Karin Mamma Andersson. Wigert has never wavered from the course established in his formative years and has continued to paint landscapes inhabited by a personal pantheon of mysterious beings and creatures, such as elves, tree spirits, Indians, or Mowgli from The Jungle Book. Recurrent are also his self portraits, both as close-ups or as distant figures situated in a landscape. In Midsommarnatt ("midsummer night") we see a man walking away in a golden landscape, while carrying a small figure in a rucksack. The figure gazes back at the beholder with dark and impenetrable eyes.

Figures that float or drown are also recurrent in Wigert's art, and the water is more often than not the lake Prästsjön ("The priest's lake"), near Grundsunda in northern Sweden, where the artist's cottage is set. Other themes are flight and flying figures, such as Icarus, angels, Leda and the Swan, or birds. Deep psychological notions may imbue the motif, since Wigert's father belonged to the early aeronautic pioneers in Sweden and was involved in several near-fatal plane crashes. In Änglar ("Angels") a naked pair of angels clings to each other in a wintry landscape, while a black bird hovers over them. Wigert does not paint nature as such; he rather lets the experience of it take shape on the canvas. It is a world at times dark and dismal, while at other drenched in sunlight and joy. His branches, bushes, men and moss maidens are drawn with delicate lines, as if we are looking at a world to be seen just for a moment.

Hans Wigert has made many exhibitions since his debut in Stockholm at De Unga in 1965. Solo shows include Galerie Verkligheten, Umeå; Liljevalchs konsthall, Stockholm; Göteborgs konstmuseum; Sundsvalls museum; Södertälje konsthall; Västerås konstmuseum; Skövde konsthall; Härnösands konsthall; and Jämtlands museum, Östersund. During recent years he has participated in several group shows, such as "När solen står som högst", Norrköpings konstmuseum; "I linje", Liljevalchs konsthall och Vida museum (Borgholm); and "2 x barndom", Länsmuseet Västernorrland (Härnösand) and Sundsvalls museum. He is represented in numerous public collections both in Sweden and abroad, such as The National Museum, Stockholm; Moderna museet, Stockholm; Statens porträttsamling, Gripsholm; Minneapolis Art Institute; as well as the art museums of Belgrad, Borås, Gävle, Gothenburg, Helsingborg, Jönköping, Kristianstad, Malmö, Norrköping, Sundsvall, Umeå and Östersund.

Hans Wigert is born 1932 in Karlskrona and grew up in Djursholm outside Stockholm. He studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm, 1960-65. Today he lives and works in Stavsnäs. Please contact the gallery for press information and images.

For further information, please contact the gallery.