KunstenaarNorwegiangeb.1928–ov.2016
Svein Bolling
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Svein Bolling was born on 13 April 1948 and has spent most of his working life in Oslo. He trained at the Statens kunstakademi under Reidar Aulie from 1970 to 1974, a period that grounded him in the post-war Norwegian figurative tradition while leaving room for the slow move toward abstraction that would mark his later decades. His debut at Høstutstillingen came in 1972, and by 1977 he had mounted his first solo exhibition at Kunstnerforbundet - the same year Galleri K opened its doors and took him on as one of its founding artists.
Bolling's paintings are built around the human figure, but not in any narrative or descriptive sense. Reclining women, men in interiors, solitary figures set against dark grounds - these subjects repeat across oils and pastels with a deliberate, accumulative weight. The figures are monumental in bearing but resist portraiture: they are types, presences, something close to archetypes rather than individuals. Color is subdued; surfaces carry the soft grain of pastel chalk or the dense impasto of oil paint applied in broad, searching strokes.
Through the 1980s and 1990s his reputation grew steadily within Norwegian institutional circles. The Astrup Fearnley Museum showed his work in a major exhibition in 1995, and Lillehammer Kunstmuseum followed with a retrospective in 1997. Works entered the collections of the Nasjonalmuseet, Bergen Billedgalleri, Rogaland Kunstmuseum, Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum, and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, among others - a breadth of institutional acquisition unusual even for established Norwegian painters. By the 2001 Galleri K show in Bjørn Farmannsgate, demand had outpaced supply; works sold before the opening and queues formed outside.
In later years Bolling has worked in parallel registers, maintaining the figurative thread alongside an increasingly non-figurative practice. Works like "Pigment" (2016-21) and "Falling Man" (reworked 2022) show a painter still actively revising his own earlier premises, using pigment and surface as subjects in their own right rather than vehicles for the figure.
At auction, Bolling's market is concentrated in Norway, primarily at Grev Wedels Plass Auksjoner, with additional sales at Stockholms Auktionsverk. His 21 recorded auction appearances include a top result of 86,000 NOK for "Hvilende figur (Studie)", with other figurative works including "Dame mot mørk bakgrunn" (33,000 NOK) and "Kvinne i interiør" (15,000 NOK). The auction record aligns with his institutional standing: a recognized figure in Norwegian post-war painting whose works trade modestly but consistently.