Karl-Axel Pehrson

The poetic Concretist.

Karl-Axel Pehrson was one of the Men of 1947. Over time his Concrete art became increasingly poetic and close to nature.

Karl-Axel Pehrson was born in 1921. He studied painting in Stockholm during the war years and was one of the young artists who took part in the exhibition Young Art in 1947. The group, which came to be known as the Men of 1947, introduced Concrete art to Sweden with geometric pictures built from pure forms and colours.

Pehrson’s early Concrete pictures are austere, but from the outset his art had a softer and more poetic tone than that of several of the others. He was interested in rhythm, movement and the interplay of colours.

Over time he drew closer to nature. Forms reminiscent of plants, leaves, flowers, insects and landscapes began to appear in his pictures, still ordered with the clarity and precision of Concrete art. His later painting is often described as a fusion of Concretism and nature poetry. He also worked in public art and printmaking.

Pehrson died in 2005. He is regarded as one of the central figures of Swedish Concrete art and as an example of how strict geometric abstraction could develop into something personal and poetic.

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