Ernst Billgren
Artist of foxes and mosaics.
Ernst Billgren makes paintings, mosaics and sculptures featuring animals in suits, in a playful, popular style.
Ernst Billgren was born in 1957 and made his breakthrough as an artist in the 1980s. He soon became one of Sweden’s best-known and best-loved artists, but also one of the most debated.
His pictorial world is easy to recognise. Foxes, birds, dogs and other animals appear in suits and dresses, sit in drawing rooms, dance or wander through dreamlike landscapes. The animals behave like people, and the pictures have both the charm of a fairy tale and an undertone of irony. He has painted, made bronze sculptures, furniture and textiles, and often works in mosaic, where small pieces of stone and glass form patterns and stories.
Billgren has also made public works and collaborated with companies, which has spread his images far beyond the museums. He has had a high media profile, written books about art and readily entered debates about what art is and who gets to decide. He has argued that art can be both popular and serious and has spoken out against what he sees as the snobbery of the art world.
Critics have sometimes dismissed him as too commercial, while the public has queued for his exhibitions. That tension is part of his legacy. He represents a playful, narrative and decorative strand in Swedish contemporary art that many people recognise even without having visited an art museum.