Chronologically, what I show at Galleri Konstepidemin begins with a series of yellow paintings, followed by a green series painted with the same method. These have, in turn, via some detours, given rise to the textile paintings. I seldom make sketches, but work directly with the painting, following a guiding idea. Most often the idea does not work, the painting demands something more, and this is where the working process begins…

The yellow paintings: I have used two colours in order to make the surface as flat as possible. The paint I used the most was yellow and broken white (oilcolurs). The yellow colour has a special relationship to light and space. I’ve put much effort on the relationship between the paintings and the surrounding space and to reduced the components as much as possible. Their format is to some extent related to the dimension of the human body, there are only two colours, and their relationship with light is recognisable. The format, the two colours, the space – that’s the starting point, the point zero  where the process begins.

The work with  the yellow series is sponsored by the Swedish Art Grants Committee and the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts.

With the yellow and white series as a point of departure I continued to make similar paintings, but with other choices of colours and materials. Here the green paintings get into the picture, as well as the colour field paintings shown at Galleri 1 in spring 2015. The textile paintings: paintings in some of the colours stiffened or got stuck in a kind of mood painting. In order to escape these tendencies I covered the paintings with grotesque figures – only to discover that it was the original sketching, the manner of application, that had killed them, the colours were still usable. A dyed tapestry became the lower half of a painting that gradually was filled with pieces of dyed fabric until the painting was finished. The textile paintings are thought of as prototypes of future works in larger formats.

Concurrently with the green paintings, the colour field paintings and the textile paintings I’ve been working with net pattern / splash paintings. This is a recurring working method which I often use as a kind meditation or play. The paintings are basic and I let them take the path they choose. In order to see where they want to go I avoid to evaluate what’s good or bad in them.

Lennart Fägerskiöld, january 2016

About the artist. Lennart Fägerskiöld was born 1952. He studied free art/ painting  at the Royal Institute of Art 1978-1983 and architecture at the Royal Institute of Art / the Royal Institute of Technology 2001-2003, and has a Master of Fine Arts. The last solo exhibition was at Galleri 1, Gothenburg, in spring 2015. He has also been exhibited in Stockholm, Umeå, Malmö, and other places. His work has been purchased by the Swedish Art Agency (among other institutions) and he has receieved scholarships from the Swedish Art Grants Committee a number of times. He works and lives in Stockholm.