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The original: autumn panorama from Northern Sweden by Helmer Osslund, "The Lap painter", dead in 1938

Mamma good but Helmer better

Claes Britton | Jul 20, 2008 | 0 comments

Our dear Swedish media reported some time ago, at the start of this summer, that a large oil canvas by our much hyped Swedish contemporary artist Karin Mamma Andersson had sold for a remarkably high price at an esteemed international auction, I think it was Sotheby's. Well, the price for this painting, named Heimat*, was actually about €160,000 or so, whatever is so remarkable about such an amount in this our modern day art market. Many people claim to really love the art of Karin Mamma Andersson - or Mamma Andersson as she was quite simply called on the cover of the catalogue for her recent large scale solo exhibition at Moderna Museet here in Stockholm - and, sure, she is indeed a fine artist in many ways, even if I personally have always suspected that her striking name has been a contributing factor to her peerless popularity. What I find hard to like or respect is the fact that she has stolen the entire technique and feeling in "Heimat" and many of her other best known works from one of Sweden's greatest painters of the early twentieth century, and my own personal favorite of them all, Helmer Osslund, th wonderful "Lap painter", born in the Northern Swedish region of Medelpad and studied under Gaugin in Paris, until very recently all but completely forgotten by the general audience. Osslund lived a life very distant from today's trend-ridden, thoroughly commercialized art scene. He walked out in the wondrous grim landscapes of Northern Sweden, painting his sparse canvases under most streneous circumstances, blazing so proud and gloriously in the intense colors of the north (go see at our National Museum!). His career never became glimmering during his lifetime.

The thing is that Karin Mamma Andersson openly admits her "inspiration", which I prefer copycatting, from Helmer Osslund, even calling some of her in my opinion less than good copies "homages". By doing so, many art people are of the opinion that her "borrowing" is acceptable, even admirable. The same goes for, for example, Cecilia Edefalk, another much hyped contemporary artist, whose painting "Dad", a blatant rip from Dick Bengtsson, another dead Swedish artist - a typical "artist's artist" - of older times who had his greatness in the sixties and seventies, sold for far over a million Swedish crowns at the Bukuwskis modern auction here in Stockholm in the spring.

Stealing from the dead and selling for amounts with many zeroes is considered justifiable in the art world - yes, its part of the artists' "artistic integrity", it is claimed - this divine privilege which we lesser souls can never expect to ever be allowed to savour. I for one don't think this is cool, regardless of what the art people have to say. What do you say about it?

* I can’t find a postable format of this painting so check it out for yourselves.

Mamma good but Helmer better

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