Carl Kylberg

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For Carl Kylberg art was an expression of spirituality. He was fascinated by Indian and Chinese philosophy and mysticism, and wanted his art to express a deeper lying reality behind all the coincidences and outer events in our lives.

Carl Kylberg was born in 1878 and died in 1952. The year before he died the Modern Museum in Paris held a big exhibition of his art. He was the first Swedish 20th Century artist to be celebrated in this way.

Carl Kylberg did not paint like anyone else. He was called both a poet and musician of colours. Colour was of the upmost importance to him. Everything in the picture is about colour and how it created the motif and content. Such made him the subject of much discussion. Either one did not understand a thing – thought his pictures were just unclear and difficult to understand, or reacted strongly to the way colour and motif reflected a spiritual, religious content.

In our painting, a blue sailing-ship lies still in the water, while the sun dries its raised sails. Kylberg often painted several pictures with the same motif. In another painting with drying sails there are people on the beach in the foreground, but in our painting there is only water. On this side of the ship we note a blue reflection in the water, it could be another boat. Behind the blue sail on the left we see red shining through. Is there a boat with red sails behind the blue? That was his way of creating a suggestive, vibrating movement in the picture. The latter is also seen in the sun. The motif is not frozen in a moment, but is still alive, full of movement – as if everything is happening here and now.

Omitting certain details stops us from staying on the surface of the picture. The artist wants us to begin to realise things before the motif. A question we – the viewers – are asked is: What is the symbolic bad weather the sails must dry from?