ArtistSwedish
Anders Hultman
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Anders Hultman came to painting sideways, the way many of the best artists do. Born in 1953 in Gothenburg, he spent his working years as a primary-school teacher before the urge to paint arrived at thirty. He has never attended an art academy, and the absence of formal training is not a gap but a quality: his pictures carry the particular freedom of someone who taught himself to look.
Hultman describes his approach as romantic naivism. He begins each canvas by laying in the sky, usually with no fixed idea of where the image will lead, then lets a dialogue develop between brush and surface. The result is a world of small pleasures - sunlit gardens, well-dressed characters with improbable occupations, city vistas with a theatrical tint. The palette is warm and deliberate, drawn from the Gothenburg Colourists he admires - Ragnar Sandberg, Inge Schiöler - filtered through the earthy directness of Olle Olsson Hagalund and the tender wit of Ivar Arosenius. Nothing in a Hultman painting feels accidental, but nothing feels labored either.
Alongside oil on canvas he has built a substantial body of work in color lithography. His prints are produced in editions typically running to 290 copies, hand-signed and numbered in pencil. Titles like "Yra" (Giddy), "Catering", "Greve med blodpudding" (Count with Black Pudding), and "Slaktarens vän" (The Butcher's Friend) signal that Hultman's subject is ultimately the comedy of everyday life. The image begins in the sky and ends somewhere close to a punchline - but a gentle one.
Hultman has exhibited across Sweden since his debut in 1984 at Galleri Pictor in Gothenburg, with subsequent shows at Strandgalleriet in Stockholm and galleries throughout the country. In 2008 his work reached an international audience through the GINA Gallery of International Naïve Art in Tel Aviv, one of the few institutions dedicated exclusively to the genre. He also ran his own gallery from 1992 to 1997, a stretch that placed him in direct contact with collectors. Outside the studio he has spent decades as an active musician - first as vocalist in Gotlands Får, later playing banjo in the jazz ensemble Sôr Ossbonns - which may explain why his pictures have rhythm.
On the Nordic auction market Hultman's work circulates steadily at accessible prices. Göteborgs Auktionsverk handles the largest share of his lots, with further appearances at Stockholms Auktionsverk and regional houses in Linköping and Ekenberg. Among the 30 items indexed on Auctionist, top results include the color lithograph "Yra" at 3,400 SEK and an oil on canvas titled "Trädgårdstjänst" at 3,100 SEK. Still-life oils occasionally reach into the low thousands of euros when they appear outside Sweden. The consistency of his price range reflects a collector base that returns to his work for the pleasure of it, edition after edition.