The girl has played a central part in the works of Rita Lundqvist since the middle of the 1980s. In small formats the artist has created minimalist yet powerful worlds where the girls either perform or quietly observe something only they can see or experience. The girls' peculiar and mysterious distance to the viewer creates a mystique and density that stand in sharp contrast to the perfect correctness and humour with which the paintings are executed. The girls have over time become more and more confident and they act alone or in groups, seemingly undisturbed by their surroundings.
In the new exhibition at the gallery Rita Lundqvist is back with her mysterious and secretive girls set in solitary landscapes, often defined only by a horizontal line. However, the girls have now been accompanied by boys with the same inscrutable faces and gestures. In small and, for the artist, larger panels Rita Lundqvist displays paintings filled by subtle gestures and expressions, all against a background of finely tuned sense of humour. The motifs seem to come from a larger context, as if they were illustrations from a story. Nevertheless, the viewer becomes immediately aware that he or she will never know the story – we are only allowed to see and to know what the girls and the boys allow us to.
Born in 1953 in Hässleholm, Sweden, Rita Lundqvist lives and works in Stockholm. She attended the Royal University College of Fine Arts in 1980-85. In 2000 she was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts.
Rita Lundqvist has had numerous solo shows both in Sweden and abroad, among others at Norrköpings Konstmuseum and at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery in New York. She is represented in several collections, for example at Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Borås Konstmuseum, Göteborgs Konstmuseum, Malmö Konstmuseum and Norrköpings Konstmuseum.
In the new exhibition at the gallery Rita Lundqvist is back with her mysterious and secretive girls set in solitary landscapes, often defined only by a horizontal line. However, the girls have now been accompanied by boys with the same inscrutable faces and gestures. In small and, for the artist, larger panels Rita Lundqvist displays paintings filled by subtle gestures and expressions, all against a background of finely tuned sense of humour. The motifs seem to come from a larger context, as if they were illustrations from a story. Nevertheless, the viewer becomes immediately aware that he or she will never know the story – we are only allowed to see and to know what the girls and the boys allow us to.
Born in 1953 in Hässleholm, Sweden, Rita Lundqvist lives and works in Stockholm. She attended the Royal University College of Fine Arts in 1980-85. In 2000 she was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts.
Rita Lundqvist has had numerous solo shows both in Sweden and abroad, among others at Norrköpings Konstmuseum and at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery in New York. She is represented in several collections, for example at Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Borås Konstmuseum, Göteborgs Konstmuseum, Malmö Konstmuseum and Norrköpings Konstmuseum.