Gallery 01:11

PINK SAILS - RAGNAR SANDBERG Ragnar Sandberg (1902–1972) wanted to portray reality beyond habitual notions and expectations. This exhibition is named after Sandberg’s twilight scene Pink Sails from 1934. The painting features many typical elements from his practice from this period: a focus on colour, rapid brushwork, and shapes on the verge of dissolving. The images have been said to depict memories, captured in shimmering, transient moments with people and places from Sandberg’s hometown, Gothenburg.

A vital source of inspiration was the French artist Pierre Bonnard’s vividly coloured paintings. In the 1920s Sandberg studied at the Valand Academy in Gothenburg, where Tor Bjurström, a former student of Matisse, taught. Sandberg, along with a number of west-coast artist, most of whom also attended the Valand Academy, are often referred to as the Gothenburg colourists. They shared an interest in portraying the coastline and communities along Sweden’s west coast – the people and their stories – in expressive, colourful compositions. In the mid-1930s, Sandberg went to France to work. As the situation in Europe grew more threatening, he moved towards darker hues. In an interview, Sandberg stated that one’s own idea of reality is immensely hard to portray: “What one person sees as reality, is madness or fantasy to another.” According to Ragnar Sandberg, the artist’s task was to “unmask reality as a whole – to himself and others”.