ArtistSwedish
Lennart Olausson
2 active items
Lennart Allan Olausson was born on September 29, 1944 in Stockholm. He entered Konstfack in 1961 at the age of seventeen, completing his studies there in 1965 before moving to Kungliga Konsthögskolan, where he trained from 1966 to 1971 - a formation that ran from craft-oriented applied arts to the highest level of fine arts education in Sweden.
His gallery debut came in 1968 at Galleri Doktor Glas in Stockholm, followed the next year by an exhibition at Galerie Belle in Västerås. From early on, Olausson's work engaged with photorealism - an approach that in the Swedish context carried a quiet radicalism, aligning precise optical observation with subjects drawn from everyday interiors, coastal views, and figures in ordinary settings. His technique has been described as extraordinarily varied, capable of shifting register between styles while retaining the visual acuity that defines his photorealist core.
Museum acquisitions came early and with regularity. Moderna museet made its first purchase of an Olausson painting in 1977. His work entered Nationalmuseum, Statens konstråd, and a wide range of regional and municipal collections. Corporate collections at Handelsbanken Stockholm, Ericsson, Hewlett-Packard, and Siemens also include his paintings. In the early 1980s he produced a series of public art commissions: decorations for Danderyds sjukhus (1982), Serafens vårdcentral in Stockholm (1983-84), the Mariatorget metro station (1984), and Nacka sjukhus (1985) - projects that placed his work in daily contact with a broad public audience. He lives and maintains his studio in Solna.
Printmaking runs as a parallel thread through Olausson's practice. Etchings (etsningar), drypoints (torrnål), and color lithographs appear from the 1980s onward. Works such as "Stenbrottet" (drypoint, 1983) and the coastal lithograph series from 1990 confirm that the graphic medium offered him a distinct but complementary field of inquiry alongside his painting. His auction footprint in Sweden covers major houses - Bukowskis, Stockholms Auktionsverk, Auktionshuset Thörner and Ek, and Höganäs Auktionsverk - with works in both oil and graphic media. Realized prices for his oil paintings have reached 5,500 SEK on the Nordic market, while prints circulate at more accessible levels. With three works currently active in Swedish auctions, his presence in the secondary market remains consistent.