Gerhard Nordström

During the 1950s and 1960s, Nordström turned his primary attention to graphic arts. He felt that the stark fields of black and white available in printmaking allowed him to pursue form and volume more directly than painting, which he associated at the time with geometry and abstraction. His graphic work in that period moved from an early Cubist idiom toward increasing political directness, and by the 1960s his prints were carrying visible commentary on power and inequality.

The trajectory changed decisively in the early 1970s. Nordström produced a sustained series of large-format paintings under the title "Sommaren 1970", first exhibited in 1972 at Galleri Doktor Glas in Stockholm. These works, rooted in the landscapes of Österlen and the Skåne coast, absorbed environmental and humanitarian themes without losing their connection to observed place. Moderna Museet and Borås Konstmuseum both acquired works from this period, and the series has since been grouped among the most significant contributions to modern Swedish painting.

Nordström is often identified as the most overtly political painter among the Swedish New Realists - a generation that reacted against the dominance of abstract expressionism and returned to recognisable subject matter, though with critical intent rather than simple description. His canvases draw on Skåne's flat light and open sky but load them with social and ecological urgency.

Nordström died on 13 March 2019 in Lund. On the auction market his work circulates primarily through Skåne-based houses, with Garpenhus Auktioner leading volume. Among his 47 items recorded on Auctionist, oil paintings on panel dominate, with Österlen landscapes consistently commanding the highest results - the top sale reaching 25,958 SEK, followed by cloud-formation and winter-forest subjects in the 22,000-24,200 SEK range.