Torsten Andersson Catalogue Raisonné

The Torsten Andersson Foundation, created by the artist in 2007, is compiling a digital catalogue raisonné of Torsten Andersson’s paintings from the period 1952–2009. Work on the catalogue raisonné was initiated in 2021, with Sofia Bertilsson (MFA, member of icra.art) as editor. The aim of this digital catalogue raisonné is to promote the scholarship of Torsten Andersson’s work and to safeguard his artistic legacy.

Torsten Andersson

Torsten Andersson was a modernist painter, who was born in the south of Sweden in 1926 and died in 2009. Throughout his career, Andersson questioned how painting could be conceived as language. Andersson worked in series to explore different themes, such as how to render abstract sculptures or soft textiles in paint, to conjure three-dimensional objects or architectural fragments on a two-dimensional surface, and to incorporate descriptive words in his practice. While Andersson appeared to apply paint haphazardly, his process was always highly curated. Beginning with numerous sketches, Andersson would select a handful to be continued as paintings. Though closely related to Minimal and Conceptual art, Andersson embraced a completely different aesthetic. Andersson was deeply inspired by the folk tales of his youth in rural Sweden and combined textiles with a sophisticated, yet brusque painting technique. By refusing to align his work with contemporary trends, Andersson’s oeuvre now seems timeless.

Although Andersson was perceived as a radical non-conformist, he was a professor at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Stockholm between 1960 and 1966, and represented Sweden at the São Paulo Art Biennial in 1959 and 1983, and the Venice Biennale in 1964. Andersson was known as “an artist’s artist,” who had equal support from key figures of public institutions. Notably, Andersson was awarded the Prince Eugen Medal in 1995, the Rolf Schock Prize in 1997, and the Carnegie Art Award in 1998 and 2008.

The board of the Torsten Andersson Foundation is chaired by John Peter Nilsson of Moderna Museet, Stockholm, and includes prominent members of the Swedish art world and members of the artist’s family. The works of Torsten Andersson owned by the foundation were selected by the artist himself. Andersson noted, “the paintings in the foundation’s collection may not be my best, seen as solitary blossoms, but they are deeply rooted in an independent interpretation of the gradual development of art in the twentieth century.”