Gustav Bolin (1920-1999)

Born in Stockholm in 1920 to a distinguished family of goldsmiths who had supplied the Russian tsars and the Swedish royal family for three generations, Gustav Bolin was taken to France the following year, where he would remain for the rest of his life. At the age of 18, he began working in the Paris studio of Othon Friesz, but that experience was soon interrupted by the Nazi occupation in 1940. Bolin sought refuge in the south of France, where he befriended the artists André Lhote, Alexandre Garbell, Pierre Tal-Coat and Charles Rollier, with whom he exhibited at the Musée de Valence. In 1943, before returning to Paris, he made a pilgrimage through Provence in the footsteps of Cezanne and Van Gogh. The landscapes of this region would serve as his lifelong muse, inspiring the whimsical, abstract landscapes for which he became widely acclaimed.

Following Paris’ liberation by the Allies, Bolin returned to the city and immersed himself in the artistic milieu around the Café Dôme, becoming good friends with Alberto Giacometti and Nicolas de Staël. His first post-war exhibitions began in 1947 at the Salon de Mai, followed by a solo show at the avant-garde Galerie Pierre Loeb in 1948. He became a frequent exhibitor at the Galerie Art Vivant, showing with contemporaries such as de Staël, Tal-Coat, Joan Miró, Jacques Germain, and André Lanskoy, on several occasions between 1950 and 1957. This early commercial success afforded him the opportunity to purchase property along the coast in Antibes, where he could work in the Mediterranean landscape he loved.

Bolin continued to participate in the Salon de Mai, and the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles, cementing his reputation as an evocative colorist. In 1960, 61, and 63, he was invited by the Galerie Charpentier to participate in the “Ecole de Paris” exhibitions; and at Galerie Kriegel between 1962 and 1969. Beginning in 1963, Bolin enjoyed further prominence by accepting invitations to exhibit in the U.S. with the David Findlay Gallery in New York, and also in Japan at the Nichido Gallery in Tokyo. In 1973, he was awarded a major exhibition at the Musée Galliera in Paris. Bolin would continue to show widely and steadily over the remainder of his life, including a number of exhibitions in his native Sweden. Bolin died in Antibes in 1999.

Today, Bolin’s work can be found in many public collections including the Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris, the Museum of Luxembourg, the Swedish Embassy (Paris), and the Department des Arts et des Lettres.

Source: Hanina Fine Arts