ArtistSwedish
Lars Spaak
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Lars Oskar Spaak was born on 15 December 1927 in Stockholm. His training was unusually broad for the period: he studied painting at Grünewalds målarskola from 1943 to 1946, then under Pierre Olofsson at the Académie Libre between 1945 and 1947, and sculpture with Lena Börjeson in 1947. A decade later he deepened his studies at the State Institute for Crafts and Industry and the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm, and later read art history at Uppsala University from 1964 to 1966. That double grounding in fine art and theory shaped an artist who has always moved fluidly between painting, drawing, and three-dimensional work.
Spaak emerged publicly in 1956 with a solo show at Galerie Æsthetica in Stockholm, followed a year later by an exhibition at Sturegalleriet where he presented concretist paintings - compositions governed by pure form and colour rather than representation. The concretist current running through Swedish art at mid-century, associated with figures such as Lars-Gunnar Nordström, gave Spaak a clear artistic language, though he never limited himself to it. His canvases from the period - oil and mixed media on panel, tightly structured and rhythmically organised - show a concern for spatial tension that carries directly into his later sculpture.
Over the following decades Spaak built up a body of around fifty public artworks, many of them in the Örebro region where he became closely associated with the local artistic community. Notable public works include a crucifix in polished brass at Längbro Church in Örebro, the bronze Vändkorsfågeln installed in Örebro City Park in 1974, the aluminium sculpture Vertical Rythm inaugurated in Gothenburg in 1988, and Treklang in Alingsås, whose undulating base form was drawn from the rhythm of the nearby Säveå river. The works in polished bronze and aluminium reveal a sculptor interested in surface, light, and the way industrial materials can be made to feel alive in an outdoor setting.
International exposure came through group shows in Paris, New York, Brussels, Ludwigshafen, and Nuremberg, as well as participation in the recurring Aspect exhibitions and Stockholmssalongen at Liljevalchs konsthall. His work is held in the collections of Örebro County Museum, Västerås Art Museum, Kalmar Art Museum, Örebro County Council, and the Universi-Haus in Nuremberg. He is also a member of Skulptörförbundet (the Swedish Sculptors' Association), reflecting a career sustained across more than seven decades.
On the Swedish auction market, Spaak appears regularly at Stockholms Auktionsverk and Örebro Stadsauktioner. Thirteen works have sold at auction to date, with paintings predominating alongside a handful of sculptures. Prices have been modest - top results in the low thousands of SEK - which reflects the limited secondary-market profile typical of committed regionalist artists whose institutional presence outweighs their auction visibility. The active listing on the market at the time of writing suggests continued collecting interest.