Steidlville

Olle Bærtling (1911–1981) was one of the generation of concrete-abstract painters who, during the 1950s and 60s, took up the legacy of the pioneers of abstract painting. He developed a personal pictorial universe, while also occupying a firm position among a broader artistic grouping associated with the circle around the “Salon des Realités Nouvelles” and Galerie Denise René in Paris.
Bærtling is known as “the creator of open form”. His mature works are clear and colourful, containing forms that increasingly strike us as incomplete, without boundaries and open. Bærtling wanted his pictures to reflect the time in which they were made, and he himself saw links between the open aspect of his pictures and the historical moment that took us into the space age. A Modern Classic reflects a renewed interest in Bærtling’s art in general, but also a desire to view and re-evaluate his pictures from the position and standpoint of the present. In the essays contemporary writers consider his ‘open form’ and address Baertling’s unsentimental, anti-metaphysical vision. They also consider his practice with reference to a broader, historical perspective, particularly how his art developed in parallel with American art and, in particular, minimalism and Op Art. Donald Judd is documented as having a significant interest in Bærtling’s works.