Gerhard Nordström

Gerhard Nordström (often spelled as Gerhard Nordstrom; 15 August 1925 – 13 March 2019 in Lund) was a prominent Swedish painter and graphic artist. Gerhard was the son of Joel Nordström, a priest, and Ester Nordström. He was one of four children. He was raised primarily in Sjörup and Gessie, Sweden. His eldest sibling was noted actress, Karin Nordström.

Gerhard attended both Skåne Painting School (Skånska Målarskolan) in Malmö (1940 - 1942) and The Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm (1943 -1949). His teacher at Skåne Painting School was the artist Tage Hansson. While attending The Royal Academy, he studied under the artist Fritiof Schüldt. During the period of 1964-1987, he was a painting teacher at the Målarskolan Forum in Malmö, along with fellow teachers Staffan Nihlén and Bertil Lundberg (Lundberg taught at "sister-school" Grafikskolan Forum).

During his lifetime, Nordström continued to be not only a well-regarded artist but also a popular one. As late as 2017, Nordström's works were given an exhibition by the Malmo-based art gallery "Galleri Estetica". The forty-five works presented by the gallery were sold out during the exhibition. He maintained a studio at "Bong's Old Cannery" in Ystad for a number of years. With declining health, he closed his studio but continued to paint from his home at Stortorget in Ystad. He felt these limitations, both technical and stylistic, fundamentally limited the artist’s ability toward expression. He began to focus on graphic arts. This focus would continue from the early 1950s until the latter part of the 1960s. These paintings would begin the transition of Nordström from the graphic artist to the painter. Later in his career, when Nordström had gone on to create works of vivid color, he would reflect back upon his graphical "period" and term it as "an adventure". During this time, he created a suite of painting by which he became well known.

Nordström was personally interested in, and passionate about, the environment, social/political and humanitarian themes. Much of this interest would be translated and fused into his artwork which would come to serve as the focal point for his social commentary and viewpoints regarding power dynamics and the human toll these dynamics often caused. Nordström would become recognized as the most overtly political painter of the Swedish New Realism painters of the period.

This fusion of artistic style and personal belief/interpretations began noticeably in the early 1970s. During this time, the artist produced a series of artworks known as "Sommaren 1970" ("Summer of 1970"). These works, initially begun in 1971 on the second day of the Swedish Christmas season, were created during a turbulent time of geopolitical conflict which ultimately resulted in the Vietnam War. Nordström used his artwork, in part, to document and comment on his feelings regarding war and its effects on humanity. His works would often blend the common "everyday" sights of "normal" and peaceful Sweden with the instantly recognizable horrors of war. Nordström has essentially used "The rhetorical grip of letting two continents and two realities overlap and meet in (the) one and the same painting." Stylistically, Nordström had a mastery of colour and form which he used to "evoke the presence" of a particular place. This representation, neither exact nor a full abstraction, tended toward an affinity with Photorealism. The "Summer of 1970" paintings were shown in 1972 at Galleri Doktor Glas in Stockholm. The exhibition was highly publicized by the media in Sweden. During the exhibition, prominent museums, such as Borås Konstmuseum and Moderna Museet, purchased various works within "Summer of 1970" to add to their public collections.

During the 1990s, Nordström created another group of works which have also become synonymous with the artist. In these works, Nordström, seemed to pursue what might be considered a complete departure from his social-political themed works of the 1970s. Though stylistically related, these 1990s works center on the artist's reaction to his trips to visit the gardens created by the artist Monet. Jacob Fabricius, Artistic Director of Malmö Konsthall in Malmö, Sweden (2008–2013) and Director of the Kunsthal Charlottenborg (2013-2014), has recognized Nordström as having remained one of the relatively few "politically active" painters in the Nordic community. For Fabricius, Nordström's imagery was both fascinating and evocative in that they effectively held an "atmosphere that is by turns chilling, wise, and enthralling". In 2020, a record price of 500,000 SEK was achieved for a work based on Monet's Gardens.

The Ystads konstmuseum presently has a large department dedicated to the artist. Works housed within the museum also include the seminal "De älskade Mozart" (The Beloved Mozart) an artwork also produced in the 1970s.