Vilhelm Henry Lundstrøm studied in the 1908 - 1912 painting workshop in Nielsen & Berg, at the same time at the Technical School, from which he graduated to the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts where he went 1913 - 1915.
Vilhelm Henry Lundstrøm studied in the 1908 - 1912 painting workshop in Nielsen & Berg, at the same time at the Technical School, from which he graduated to the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts where he went 1913 - 1915.
Vilhelm Henry Lundstrøm was one of Denmark's most outstanding modernist painters . He introduced Cubism in Denmark.
Background
Vilhelm Lundstrøm was born on May 26, 1893, in Sundbyerne. He grew up in a watchful, healthy, civic and quite modest environment at Amager. His education included music education and visits to the Copenhagen museums. Already at the age of 12, he showed artistic talent and, as a 15-year-old, he came into painting theory. Despite a certain degree of weakness as a child, he made the space well, showed a nice feel for the materials and impressed by his drawing skills at the Technical School.
Education
Vilhelm Henry Lundstrøm studied in the 1908 - 1912 painting workshop in Nielsen & Berg, at the same time at the Technical School, from which he graduated to the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts where he went 1913 - 1915. At the academy it was especially P. Rostrup Bøyesen that meant something to him as a teacher. During the academic years he borrowed diligently illustrated art books at the library and through foreign art magazines he followed what was happening in the European art world. On the short trip to Berlin in 1914, there was time for museum visits and exhibitions of modern revolutionary art on exhibitions.
Vilhelm Lundstrøm debuted at the artists' autumn exhibition in 1916 where he also exhibited in 1917, 1918, 1921, and 1941 and participated in the exhibition Modern Art in the art pavilion in Århus in September 1918. Together with Karl Larsen and Aage Wiboltt he held a tremendous exhibition in the upper hall in Bredgade in April - May 1919.
Vilhelm Lundstrøm was an illustrator at the magazine Klingen from the beginning of 1919 to the end of 1920. In 1937 he became a member of the Academy Council and appointed Professor at the Academy in 1944. During 1945 - 1946, Vilhelm Lundstrøm was a member of the Censorship Committee at the Artists' Autumn Exhibition and 1945 of the Artistic Committee of Resistance Movement. The first trip was to Berlin, where he as a traveling swimmer stayed for two months together with his later brother-in-law, William Nissen. In 1915 he had a studio with Karl Larsen in Frederiksberg. Together with Kamma and Axel Salto, Vilhelm Lundstrøm was in the early 1920s in Florence, Rome, Naples, and Pompeii and traveled home across England.
From the end of 1920 to 1923 he had his own studio in a backyard in Stor Kongensgade. In 1921 he was in Paris most of the year, a time with Svend Johansen. In 1922, Vilhelm Lundstrøm, Karl Larsen, and Svend Johansen spent a few months working in Bormes in the south of France, from which Vilhelm Lundstrøm traveled to Venice and Florence and home across Paris. In 1923 he settled in Cagnes in the south of France together with Svend Johansen, Karl Larsen, and Axel Salto. Here he rented a time studio in the city's old town hall and after his marriage to Yrsa, he had a residence and studio in the Mignonette villa below Renoir's village of Les Colettes.
From 1932, Vilhelm Lundstrøm had permanent residence in Copenhagen, 1938 - 1939 in Paris. Vilhelm Lundstrøm held solo exhibitions at Kunsthallen in Købmagergade in January 1932, the Art Association in May 1935 and Alfred Andersen, Nikolaj Plads, he exhibited as a guest at Grønningen in 1933 and the Grønningen anniversary exhibition in 1940. Vilhelm Lundstrøm participated in the exhibition Modern Danish Painting at Charlottenborg, October 1925, represented at virtually all exhibitions in Denmark and abroad where art from his generation has been shown. The young "packet box painter" - a term hanging out by Vilhelm Lundstrøm as late as 1944 when he was appointed professor - gained understanding of many others, such as Poul Henningsen, Poul Uttenreiter, and Otto Gelsted.
In the last ten years of his life, Vilhelm Lundström worked exclusively in a style that has been called the colored one. From previously having been strictly within a limited color scale, Vilhelm Lundstrøm now incorporated all the colors of the spectrum into its designs, models and portraits. Strongly absorbed by Matisse's fauvism, Vilhelm Lundstrøm became faithful to his principle: the pure painting. No unauthorized people got fit when the infinite many combinations of colors against each other were verified. The atmosphere and intimacy were tied up. The portrait of Bodil Ipsen, 1949, gives a strong and nice outline of the person without implying any atmosphere around her. Many shows are seen as unfinished experiments, while model images often show a meticulous study of colority and color change in human skin. Vilhelm Lundstrøm ended in a way like a naturalist. Vilhelm Lundstrøm died on May 9, 1950 in Copenhagen.
Achievements
Vilhelm Lundstrøm is one of the most famous and beloved Danish painters of the 20th century. He is remembered for his geometric still lifes with oranges, his cubistic scenes with nudes, and his paintings of bottles, flasks and jugs. But before that, in 1918, he shocked bourgeois tastes with his expressive and flamboyant style, when he exhibited his famous packing case paintings made from old wood.
Without being interested in the political aspects that were at the root of Cubism and expressionism, he assumed the language of Cubism and began experimenting with unconventional materials and techniques. Vilhelm Lundstrøm never tried to defend himself or explain his art, let alone an audience, nor did he participate in any public debate.
Quotations:
"We never become French, but we are also a first-class people."
Membership
He joined the De Four group, where he developed a lush colorful painting with large still life. After this temperate period, especially since Lundstrøm left the comrades group and settled in the South of France, a Cubist style, which was directed towards monumentalism, followed.
Personality
As the self-contained and completely free person, Vilhelm Lundstrøm was always able to purge of other art without losing his personality, and without obscuring his models, he has left a life work of outstanding original strength.
