Olle Baertling

The Concrete artist of open forms.

Olle Baertling painted pointed, open forms in strong colours and black lines. He is one of the great Swedish Concrete artists.

Olle Baertling was born in Halmstad in 1911. For many years he worked in a bank and painted in his spare time. He had little formal training, but in 1948 he studied in Paris under André Lhote and Fernand Léger. There he also came into contact with the French Concrete artist Auguste Herbin, who became an important model.

In the early 1950s he became one of the leading figures of Swedish Concrete art. He exhibited at the renowned Galerie Denise René in Paris, the centre of geometric abstraction. His style soon became entirely his own: narrow, pointed triangular forms in pure, strong colours such as red, blue and yellow, bounded by black lines. The forms continue beyond the edges of the canvas, and he called his art open form. The movement is meant to be imagined continuing into infinity.

He gave his works names of his own invention that sound like sounds rather than words. He also made metal sculptures with the same pointed, open forms.

Baertling was an uncompromising and combative artist who long had to fight for recognition in Sweden. He died in 1981. Today he is regarded as one of the most internationally known Swedish artists of the post-war period and one of the great names of Concrete art. His works are in the Moderna Museet and in many collections abroad.

• The post-war era
• The post-war era and Concretism