Otto Torsten Andersson (6 June 1926 – 30 May 2009) was a

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

modernist Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

painter, best known for his theme of the realistic depiction of abstract sculptures, and two-dimensional exploration of three-dimensional objects, where the colors seem to be superimposed on a random and perfunctory manner.Torsten Andersson död
, Sydsvenska Dagbladet, May 31, 2009. Torsten Andersson was born in Östra Sallerup

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or ...

(now part of

Hörby Municipality Hörby Municipality (''Hörby kommun'') is a municipality in the central part of Skåne County in southern Sweden. Its seat is located in the town of Hörby. The present municipality consists of ten original entities merged to each other in 1952, ...

), in

Skåne Scania, also known by its native name of Skåne (, ), is the southernmost of the historical provinces (''landskap'') of Sweden. Located in the south tip of the geographical region of Götaland, the province is roughly conterminous with Skån ...

in 1926. After practicing painting at Otte Sköld's Drawing School in Stockholm in 1945, Andersson attended classes at the

Royal Swedish Academy of Arts The Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts ( sv, Kungliga Akademien för de fria konsterna), commonly called the Royal Academy, is located in Stockholm, Sweden. An independent organization that promotes the development of painting, sculpture, archite ...

in 1946–1950. In 1947, he studied art at the

Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts ( da, Det Kongelige Danske Kunstakademi - Billedkunst Skolerne) has provided education in the arts for more than 250 years, playing its part in the development of the art of Denmark. History The Royal Dan ...

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan a ...

. From early on, Andersson returned constantly to the question of whether or not painting can be seen as a language. He felt out of place in the Swedish art scene of the 1940s, when he was an emerging artist; it seemed to him that everyone had borrowed or inherited their artistic style. His own eccentric cross between melancholy nature painting and constructivism in the 1950s met very little critical understanding. Yet Andersson soon earned a reputation as an "artists' artist", or rather a "painters' painter-an artist" who went his own way, off the beaten track of modernism. In 1960, Anderson was made a

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professo ...

of arts in Stockholm. After a personal conflict with the Academy, where he suddenly found himself "totally isolated, and completely abandoned",Torsten Andersson : What actually happened in 1966?
Moderna Museet. he suddenly resigned in 1966 as professor and retired to his native Skåne, where he remained for the rest of his life. For seven years, his artistic career was put on hold. As he would later describe an art historical course of events; the year 1966 inspired a series of somber

headstone A headstone, tombstone, or gravestone is a stele or marker, usually stone, that is placed over a grave. It is traditional for burials in the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim religions, among others. In most cases, it has the deceased's name, ...

paintings, notable ''Min Headstone'' ''(Min gravsten)'' from 2005. Andersson later elaborated about his dissent:

"The best art acts within an art historical course of events. My own merit as an artist is that I attempted to intervene in such a course. In 1966 the dissension within me, the split that is clearly discernible in ''The Spring II'' ''(Källan II)'' (1962), led me to draw a crucial conclusion. That split had separated painting into two incompatible parts. In 1966 I allowed one of these, the fictitious part, to represent the other, the concrete part, and so the divide in painting was healed in a way that involved the steadfast re-establishment of easel painting as an art form at the very time when this art form had begun to crack. Today some forty years later that conclusion seems radical and legitimate".

Andersson remained an artist who studied and practiced experimental painting, conquering and creating his own language in the process. He usually destroyed hundreds of the sketches that led to his finished works.

Lars Nittve Lars Nittve (born 17 September 1953) is a Swedish museum director, curator, art critic and writer. He was the founding Director of Tate Modern in London; former Director of the Moderna Museet in Stockholm; the founding Director of Rooseum � ...

, head of the Moderna Museet art museum in Stockholm, said about Andersson's working process:

"Of one hundred working drawings, ninety are destroyed. The surviving ten drawings give new impetus to a hundred, of which ninety are destroyed. Twenty drawings remain. Of those, sixteen are destroyed. Four remain. They go further in the working process, with no guarantee of survival".

Nor was Andersson quite satisfied with his own work; in 2008, when he received the

Carnegie Art Award The Carnegie Art Award was a Swedish art award event established in 1998 by Swedish financial group Carnegie Investment Bank to recognize and promote Nordic contemporary painting and artists. With a total prize sum of SEK 2.1m, the Carnegie Ar ...

first prize of SEK 1,000,000, he said: "I've worked hard my whole damned life, sacrificing myself and so much else for the art. This prize is no confirmation that I have succeeded, but perhaps a little hint about it". Torsten Andersson died aged 82 in Hörby in 2009.Konstnären Torsten Andersson död
, Dagens Nyheter, June 1, 2009.

References and notes

Selected bibliography

* Lars O Ericsson, ''Galleriet'', article in the ''

Dagens Nyheter ''Dagens Nyheter'' (, ), abbreviated ''DN'', is a daily newspaper in Sweden. It is published in Stockholm and aspires to full national and international coverage, and is widely considered Sweden's newspaper of record. History and profile ' ...

'', January 31, 1999. * Lars Nittve, ''Som ett norrsken'', Torsten Andersson, Sveriges Allmänna Konstförening : Årsbok 2002. * Magnus Bons, ''En målning är inte en bild – om några verk av Torsten Andersson'', Konstvetenskapliga institutionen, Stockholm University, Stockholm.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Andersson, Torsten 1926 births 2009 deaths 20th-century Swedish painters 20th-century Swedish male artists Swedish male painters 21st-century Swedish painters 21st-century Swedish male artists Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts alumni Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts People from Hörby Municipality Recipients of the Prince Eugen Medal