KunstenaarSwedish
Henry Gustafsson
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Henry Gustafsson was born in 1943 in Vimmerby, in the heart of Småland, and spent his career rooting sculpture firmly in the landscape and character of eastern Sweden. He trained at Konstfack in Stockholm and later at the art college, acquiring a technical foundation that he would put to use in an unusually wide range of materials - pewter, stone, stainless steel, and wood all featured in his output.
His best-known work arrived at a Christmas fair in Vimmerby in 1981: a compact figure of a man straining to lift a boulder far too large for any human being. The piece was cast in pewter with a stone base by the local manufacturer Vimmerby Tenn, and it spread quietly but persistently - well over 100,000 copies have been made. The sculpture came to be called Småland's Dala horse, a comparison that points to how completely it absorbed a regional character. Gustafsson modelled the figure on his own father, Erik, and the image of a single person pitting himself against immovable weight carries a plainly personal charge.
Beyond 'Lyftet', Gustafsson worked on a different scale. He entered and won public art competitions, placing permanent works in Stockholm, Hong Kong, and three stainless steel sculptures in Spring Gardens, London. In Västervik, a few kilometres from Vimmerby, his public sculpture 'Genombrottet' - a school of fish breaking through a wall - has become a local landmark at Spötorget. These commissions show an artist comfortable moving between the intimate tabletop object and the large-scale civic installation.
His themes returned consistently to the relationship between human figures and natural forces. In his own words, nature was always the larger of the two - the boulder bigger than the man, the fish smaller than the wall they push through. Wood carving and drawing were regular parts of his practice alongside sculpture, and oil painting appeared in his later work.
Gustafsson died in 2005. Tjustbygdens konstförening held a memorial exhibition in Vimmerby shortly after, and his work has continued to circulate through Swedish auction houses, with the Vimmerby Tenn versions of 'Lyftet' remaining the most frequently traded pieces.
On the auction market, Gustafsson's 44 recorded items at Auctionist span sculpture, art, and painting. The majority of his pieces have passed through regional houses with close ties to his home geography - Thelin & Johansson (14 items), Växjö Auktionskammare (6), and Göteborgs Auktionsverk (4). Sculptures account for 34 of the 44 lots. Prices at recent sales include SEK 1,619 for 'Lyftet' in stone and pewter, SEK 1,200 for a butterfly piece in the same materials, and EUR 950 for a further sculpture.