Saturday December 10th was the closing day of Lars Gustafsson's art exhibition
at Gallery Örhänget - Sweden's smallest gallery! - which I have mentioned
before (the Aniara exhibit earlier this autumn). Gustafsson, the literary giant
who also liked - and wrote - science fiction died earlier this year. But his
family let the gallery show some of his artwork. I don't think he was a very
prolific artist. It seems he picked up a pen or a brush as a distraction, maybe
as he got stuck in his writing. Swedish info
http://www.arosiensis.se/aktuellt/lars-gustafsson-pa-galleri-Orhanget/
There were perhaps 40-50 drawings and paintings in display mostly in smaller
format from A5 size to slightly lager than A4. As I arrived twenty past opening
there were only 3-4 people there including publisher (and part owner) Jonas
Ellerström who I always tend to bump into. We chatted a while and as I though
nobody would turn up - people started to pour in as i called by a magic wand.
It became packed 25-30 people perhaps and we as usual had to use the corridor
outside the little gallery.
Jonas held a short intro speech, and then we heard his last wife Agneta read
an interesting (with some mild humour) piece about their relationship.
Gustafsson's children Madeleine and Joen then read poetry and a piece about why
the author loved dogs. At least as I recall.
Now, Joen is married to one Karin Lundwall daughter to Sam J Lundwall - and
she turned up. I of course too the chance to ask how it is with her father. I
had some indications it might not be good but she said he's fine, except the
eye problems. As she now works or the big publisher Bonniers I asked about
that. She said that despite E-books and Spotify or whatever it's well with the
publishing house (the fact is that e-books have made a slower intrusion into
the Swedish market than elsewhere). I also learnt that they get ca 3000
manuscripts per year but only publish 6-7 debutants every year. As it has
always been. Then I mentioned that it was a rather ignorant and insensitive
move by Worldcon75 to invite J-H Holmberg as GoH, because of the history of SJL
vs JHH and the simple fact that Sam J Lundwall STARTED sf cons in Finland (with
King-Con, 1982, with the help from Tom Ölander and others, incl one
Enghorp...olv...something...). They didn't even bother to contact Sam J. Karin
agreed.
Another surprising visitor was Jörgen Forsberg part owner of the SF
Bookstore. I talked writing with a well-known biography author and modernism
with a guy whose father was involved in the Swedish edition of Galaxy
magazine in the late 1950's.
What about Gustafsson's art? It was uneven of course, since he was an amateur
in this area, but some stuff was good. I remember some simple but fine nature
studies, a couple of portraits, a building in oil - his best things were in
watercolour - and of course several studies of a space sphere, almost a
signature motif or him. You can get a (very small) glimpse of some of it here
(his spheres being closest):
http://allevents.in/stockholm/lars-gustafsson-p%C3%A5-%C3%96rh%C3%A4nget/1236276859748502
--Ahrvid
Ps. På engelska, så kan jag posta det annorstädes också.
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