The painter Barbro Östlihn (1930 – 1995) began her career in Stockholm before moving to New York and then Paris, where she lived for the rest of her life. For several decades, she found herself at the heart of major artistic changes taking place in the USA and Europe and played a key role in transatlantic cultural exchanges.
Her arrival in Manhattan in 1961, following a period of intensive academic training in 1950s Stockholm, had a decisive influence on the monumental painting style she quickly developed. Her large canvases combine architectural fragments and geometric macro-forms, mosaic motifs and sometimes organic microstructures. Throughout her life she observed the evolution of the cities where she lived – from the renovation of dilapidated neighbourhoods to the violent destruction of certain areas. She developed a body of work where the building itself, architecture and the way the viewer interacts with them are imbued with both form and meaning.
The exhibition presents some twenty works that are emblematic of her career, focusing on architectural and painterly space.
For a long time Barbro Östlihn remained in the shadow of her husband, Öyvind Fahlström, and this rétrospective aims to revive interest in her uniquely powerful work.
Curated by Annika Ă–hrner