Artist Biography & Facts

Gosta Adrian-Nilsson Gan

Berlin was full of life. The city was full of industrial and cultural production. It was a relatively "young" capital with great ambitions to be at the forefront in most areas. Sociologist Max Weber is said to have called 10th century Berlin "a wild dance of impressions and sounds of colors".

The first time Gusta Adrian-Nilsson (GAN) met Walden was at his regular café at Potzdamer platz, the city's boiling hub through which all classes of citizens passed and gathered. After the meeting with Walden, GAN soon entered the community at the gallery, which was very centrally located on Potsdamer Strasse 134 A. On the walls hung the latest artistic "isms", all of which in their own way were an expression of the ideas and development of modern times.

The exhibitions took turns. Here, GAN received impulses from futurism's urban motifs with technology and movement. There were also the colorful expressions of expressionism, some melodic, at the beginning of the abstract. A new kind of spaciousness was also found in the fragmented motifs of Cubism, synthetically put together into compositions… The most important exhibition for GAN was the Deutscher Herbstsalon, which opened in September 1913. The exhibition with its 366 works became the most extensive avant-garde exhibition in Europe before the outbreak of war in August 1914.

An important inspiration there was Wassily Kandinsky's abstract work, Composition VI. The war then stood in the way of plans for a recurring autumn salon. In a letter to Walden written on October 10, 1913, GAN thanks for "the opportunity for spiritual renewal, You have prepared me through your exhibition". Another important meeting for GAN's development was with the architect Bruno Tauts. Tauts was to exhibit a prismatic glass dome at Deutcher Werkbund's exhibition in Cologne, 1914.

In accordance with the advances of engineering and architecture, the versatility of glass would be demonstrated here. GAN was so interested in this that he managed to become the director of the pavilion. The effects in the glass were controlled by a mechanical kaleidoscope that projected moving star patterns. It is not difficult to calculate that these color experiences became another source of inspiration. In connection with the outbreak of war in 1914, which quickly interrupted and changed most things, GAN ended its journey.

Just turned 30, he was fulfilled by his experiences. But life had also meant great personal losses for him during the scarce year he had been away. His father had passed away, as had his love "Ilja" who had been waiting for him in Lund. GAN now rented a small apartment on Idrottsgatan 5, and fled into an intense painting phase where he let his inspiration and world of mind take over. The motifs consisted of symbols of modernity, such as steam locomotives, electricity and iron rods. But here were also the strong athletes and sailors.

Athletes depicted in the middle of a showdown. Sailors growing up and glimpsed in cubist landscapes. Sailors who have fun and who move at a rhythmic pace together. Homosexuality was very controversial during GAN's day, to the extent that it was illegal. The erotic symbolism in the works was therefore long hidden, but over time has become more obvious, and made the audience understand another dimension of the artist. The sailors that GAN called "the blue ones" were an expression of an erotic attraction. They were also a symbol of freedom through their lifestyle which GAN with its, sometimes, restless and dreamy character seemed to envy. Freedom and attraction, two spirits that can go hand in hand.

 GAN's new modernist painting, including The White and the Blue Sailor, was exhibited for the first time in the autumn of 1915 at the Expressionist Exhibition in the University House in Lund. His friend Einar Jolin was invited as a co-exhibitor with a small collection of works next to GAN's 30 oils. The white and the blue sailor were valued, as one of the more expensive works, at as much as SEK 300. In a photo of GAN himself in the exhibition room, you see a straight-backed 31-year-old in front of his works.

He wears a jacket, vest and bow tie. The shoes shine and the cap lies easily on the head. He is in the vanguard, conscious and confident. The exhibition was rewritten, questioned but also noticed by the major newspapers. In his pamphlet Art and Criticism, 1915, GAN's own voice was given space to describe his art. On page eight, he writes about how he dares to create based on his modern complex contemporary, despite narrow-mindedness: Life is now lived at a pace that no one has dreamed of. Impressions of the most diverse character flow over us, and the artist must seek his salvation in the synthesis so as not to be too far behind. Strength, courage and bravery are required of the followers of this new art, as insult, laughter and caricature often become its gloomy lot.

The modernist GAN managed to find its magnificent and interesting aesthetic from a rich and complex context. The outstanding work The White and the Blue Sailor painted GAN while the memories and impressions of his journey were fresh, and his new style not yet exposed. The symbolism is multifaceted and suggestive. How you choose to view the painting is up to the viewer. From the color party and the dynamics, it is easy to rejoice and be drawn in. Nevertheless, more difficult questions can be asked about our past, present and future. No matter how actively the painting is viewed, it will be a constant object of wonder and admiration.

Between the years 1920-1925, Gösta Adrian-Nilsson was in Paris on an inspirational journey that he had longed to do. Fernand Léger introduced him to the artistic circles of Montparnasse, and influenced him with his austere machine cubism. GAN, which was already moving towards more form-fitting compositions in a synthetic cubist style, was impressed, but still retained its own expression. In the spring of 1921, GAN saw the exhibition "Exposition Dada Max Ernst". At the time, Max Ernst's collage was exhibited, which included random encounters between illustrations and texts. The expression became something new; absurd and aesthetically pleasing at the same time.

After the exhibition, GAN began to create its own collages, often with single words or phrases. In the vertically constructed watercolor "Dangerous", GAN has combined pasted paper with a colorful cubist watercolor painting. A sailor can be distinguished in the composition. His back is the ocher-shaped shape on the right, which is crowned by a stylized French sailor hat. Opposite the sailor are a pair of black eyes. Maybe it's a "life-threatening" meeting that we glimpse? In an interview with GAN in the 1950s by Oscar Reuterswärd, he is said to have commented on the Paris era: “I was bursting with ideas at that time. Collagen became my salvation. " Reuterswärd in the article, "Gösta Adrian Nilsson's miraculous solar collector" in Kulturens årsbok 1983 p. 40. Condition

Gösta Adrian-Nilsson - GAN - debuted in 1907 as a poet with the work "Poems" and the same year he debuted also as an artist with an exhibition at Lund University Art Museum.  In early 1913, he went to Berlin to take in the continental modernism with the different directions within Expressionism, Futurism and Cubism.

In autumn 1916, he moved to Stockholm, where he attracted attention by his radical modernism and its eager propaganda for the new art.  Towards the end of the 1910s, he moved to Paris and there came into contact with the artist giant Fernand Leger. 

GAN participated in 1930, in the groundbreaking Stockholm Exhibition with a suite plane geometric paintings in the Art Concrets spirit and moved the following year again to Stockholm.  He was admired by, among other members of the Halmstad Group and joined in the 1930s as well as those to surrealism. 

During the 1950s he oriented himself back towards the constructive painting that he has been one of the pioneers in Sweden.