Waldemar Sjölander

Waldemar Sjölander
Born	(1908-01-06)January 6, 1908 Gothenburg, Sweden
Died	March 18, 1988(1988-03-18) (aged 80) Mexico City, Mexico
Nationality	Mexican
Field	painting, printmaking, sculpture

Gustav Waldemar Sjölander Johnson (b. January 6, 1908 – d. March 18, 1988) was a Swedish painter, printmaker and sculptor.

Biography

Waldemar Sjölander made his studies of painting in his home country, later he expanded and specialized in sculpture in Norway and Denmark. In 1930 he exhibited his works, which were influenced by Charles Despiau and Aristide Maillol and Gothic art, for the first time. From the 1920s he traveled several times to America. After World War II, Sjölander moved to Cuba and in 1947 to Mexico, where he exhibited in the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City for his first time. This was the time when he decided to reside in Mexico, and for this purpose he was naturalized Mexican. He toured almost all of Mexico, concentrating on the landscape and the people.

During the World War II, was recruited as a trooper by six years in the service of Sweden. At the end of this event and round by ship to México, in Oaxaca there was installed for five years, in one of his visits to México City, he met whom he married Aurora, with whom he lived until his last days and had two sons, Gustavo and Carlos.

the absence of not dominate the host language, its integration into the Mexican culture was difficult. His position was not in no time trader of his work, he detested this attitude. He only awaited the opportunity to participate in artistic events, he was accepted and successful, working in his work and his classes every day of his life, never waste his time.

Sjölander taught at La Esmeralda, at the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura (INBA), at the Academy of San Carlos, at the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), and at the Research and Experimentation Center of Plastic Arts of the INBA. Some of his works belong to museums all over the world. As noted above, the theme of his work are people and landscapes. His artistic movement, which initially was figurative, later became semi-abstract. He specialized in direct carving and used the materials plaster, bronze and wood.

Had a preference for classical music, one of its authors, Antonin Dvorak "New World Symphony." In literature he read works of Samuel Beckett.

At the end of a creative life and intensive labor, Aurora attended Waldemar Sjölander full time in his last years, Sjölander suffered by cebrebral sclerosis, hydroencephalitis and by injured intervertebral discs. He was surrounded by his family and friends. His last understandable words were: "hjälpa mig" (Swedish for help me). He died in Mexico City on March 18, 1988.

Work

Autonomy in its color, its rich chromatics that never breaks the surface of the frame and balance and originality of his sculptures will show a unique shape and style.

—Fernando Gamboa, director of the Fomento Cultural Banamex

.

"Waldemar Sjölander joined our fight and has since been regarded as one among us." -Remember the painter and sculptor Mexican Manuel Felguérez- Referring to the artists that he integrated the movement called, "Rupture Generation" [national group of abstract artists, confronted with the tradition of the "Mexican School of Painting", originally headed, Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros y José Clemente Orozco].

Waldemar Sjölander made a combined work between: Oils on linen [over 350 pictures], engravings, lithographs [over 120], gouaches, drawings [over 600], bronze sculptures and reliefs [over 100], sculptures and reliefs wood [over 40], painting on ceramics [over 20].

Exhibitions

Individual exhibitions

• 1947: Palace of Fine Arts, Mexico City
• 1950: Palace of Fine Arts, Mexico City
• 1952:
  • Liljevalchs konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden
  • Göteborgs Konsthall, Gothenburg, Sweden.
• 1957: Salón de la Plástica Mexicana, Mexico City
• 1958
  • Salón de la Plástica Mexicana, Mexico City
  • Hall of Visual Arts, Mexico City
• 1960: Palace of Fine Arts, Mexico City
• 1961: Konstakademien, Stockholm, Sweden
• 1965:
  • Palace of Fine Arts, Mexico City
  • House of Peace (at "Agency for International Promotion of Culture), Mexico City
• 1966: Galería Mer-Kup, Mexico City
• 1967: Salón de la Plástica Mexicana, Mexico City
• 1968: Galería Mer-Kup, Mexico City
• 1969: Palace of Fine Arts, Mexico City
• 1972: Galería Mer-Kup, Mexico City
• 1975: Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City
• 1976: Lorensberg Konstsalong, Gothenburg, Sweden
• 1978: Galería Estela Shapiro, Mexico City
• 1980:
  • Galería Gabriela Orozco, Mexico City
  • Contemporary Art Forum, Mexico City
  • Galería Hagerman, Mexico City
• 1984: Picture Gallery, Gothenburg, Sweden
• 1986: "Tribute exhibition" at Galería Metropolitana, UAM, Mexico City

Postmortem individual exhibitions

• 1998: Museum Dolores Olmedo, Mexico City
• 1992: Andres Siegel Gallery, Mexico City

Collective exhibitions

• 1958: Salon de la Plastica Mexicana, Mexico City
• 1960: International Biennale of Sculpture, Tokyo, Japan
• 1961: VI Bienal de São Paulo, Brazil
• 1962: I Biennial of Sculpture, INBA in Mexico City
• 1967: III National Sculpture Biennial, Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City
• 1971: I Annual Exhibition of Sculpture, Plastic Arts Salon México, Mexico City
• 1972:
  • "20 Contemporary Mexican Artists", Center of Modern Art Temporary School Courses, Guadalajara, Mexico
  • International Biennale of Sculpture, Tokyo, Japan
• 1974: "Mexican Painting and Sculpture", Tokyo, Japan
• 1976:
  • "Art Object", Tane Jewelry, Mexico City
  • Currency Museum, Paris, France
• 1977: "Art Object"Hermitage Museum, Leningrad, Russia
• Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Moscow, Russia
• 1981: "International Competition for Small Sculptures", Budapest, Hungary
• 1984:
  • I Bienal de la Habana, Havana, Cuba
  • "At the time of the 80", Lake House, UNAM, Mexico City

Postmortem collective exhibitions

• 1989: "25 Years of the Museo de Arte Moderno", Mexico City
• 1991: "The Sculpture and UNAM, University Museum Poplar, UNAM, Mexico City
• 1993: "The Mexican Sculpture at the End of the Millennium" at the Europalia festival

Acquisitions

• Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, Sweden.
• Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden.
• Gothenburg Museum of Art, Gothenburg, Sweden.
• INBA, Mexico City
• National Museum, Rhodesia, South Africa
• Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City
• Casa de las Américas, Havana, Cuba
• Institut Tessin, Paris, France

Bibliography

• Waldemar Sjölander, A.R.S. Förlag, Stockholm, 1946.
• Hjern, Kjell: i Konsten Gothenburg, Wesäta Förlaj, Gothenburg, 1961.
• Moon Arroyo, Antonio: Mexican Contemporary Sculpture, INBA, Mexico, 1964.
• Monteforte Toledo, Mario: The Living Stones, 2a.ed., UNAM, Mexico, 1969.
• Peterson, Bob: Waldemar Sjölander, Atlantis, Stockholm, 1980.
• Raben and Sjogren: Göteborgs Koloristerna, Halmstad, Sweden, 1948.
• Ragnar, and Jungmarker Gunnar Hoppe: Svartosch Vitt, Stockholm, 1946.
• Sallberg, Harold: Svensk Grafik, Gunnar Jungmarker, Stockholm, 1957.
• Fernando Gamboa: Waldemar Sjölander. Artista Sueco - Mexicano. Exposición Retrospectiva. Pinturas, Esculturas y Otras Técnicas (catalogue), Museo de Arte Moderno, INBA, SEP, Mexico, 1975.
• Historia del Arte Mexicano [Mexican History Art], SEP, INBA, Salvat, Mexico, 1985, t. 11 and 12.
• Waldemar Sjölander, Pinturas, Relieves, Esculturas (catalogue), Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes [Paintings, Reliefs, Sculptures, Museum of Fine Arts Palace], INBA, SEP, México, 1985.
• Kassner, Lily: Dictionary of Mexican sculptors of the twentieth century, volume II, National Council for Culture and Arts, General Directorate of Publications, first edition: 1997. ISBN 968-29-9777-1 General Works, ISBN
• Gamboa, Fernando: Waldemar Sjölander. Artista Sueco - Mexicano. Exposición Retrospectiva. Pinturas, Esculturas y Otras Técnicas (catalogue), Museo de Arte Moderno, INBA, SEP, México, 1975.

Awards

• 1962: "Xipe-Totec Prize" at the I National Sculpture Biennale, INBA, Mexico City
• 1967: "Honorable Dimension" at the III National Sculpture Biennale, Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City
• 1971: First prize, Salon de la Plastica Mexicana, Mexico City

External links

• Waldemar Sjölander in the Ibero-American Institute (Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation) catalogue, Berlin
• Literature by and about Waldemar Sjölander in the German National Library catalogue