Jörgen Fogelquist

His mature work departed from the geometric certainties of concrete art, in which alternating curved and linear forms had given each composition a clear internal logic, toward an abstract expressionism defined by fast movement, surprising compositional decisions, and an intensive, sometimes confrontational play of colour. The shift was not a rupture but an evolution, and the technical fluency he had developed as a printmaker remained visible in the precision with which he controlled surfaces even when working intuitively.

Fogelquist became one of the more prolific contributors to Sweden's postwar programme of public decoration. Around fifty commissions in various materials mark buildings, stations, and civic spaces across the country. The most widely seen is "Tur och retur," a work in painted glazed tiles executed for T-Centralen in Stockholm between 1957 and 1962. Tens of thousands of commuters pass the two wall sections in T-Centralen's western ticket hall daily without knowing the artist's name, which is perhaps the particular condition of public art at its most embedded. When part of the work was demolished during a 1993 renovation, Fogelquist was commissioned to extend it into the connecting passage between T-Centralen and the central railway station. Another major commission, the fresco "Årtag" at the Rosenbad government office, gave him a more institutional setting.

In the early 1960s the family moved to Skåne, settling after a few years in Malmö at Lund, where Fogelquist continued to produce graphic work and public commissions until the end of his life. Several pieces in Lund's permanent public art collection date from that period. Works held by Moderna Museet confirm his place in the national conversation around postwar Swedish abstraction.

He received Sydsvenska Dagbladets kulturpris in 1974, the citation noting art "exceptionally sensitive and moving" in which seriousness of expression is always united with technical ease. In 2002 he was awarded Lund's city cultural prize. He died on 27 February 2005 and is buried at the Northern Cemetery in Lund.

At auction, Fogelquist's work appears regularly at houses in Skåne and across Sweden, with Helsingborgs Auktionskammare and Garpenhus Auktioner accounting for much of the current secondary market activity. Prices reflect a solid regional following: mixed-media and assemblage pieces such as "Kalle" have reached 4,000 SEK, oils on canvas around 3,200 SEK, and the graphite and fabric work "Spindelvävnad" achieved 700 EUR. The range is consistent with an artist whose public presence far exceeds his auction footprint.