KunstenaarSwedish
Ulf Gripenholm
2 actieve items
Ulf Gripenholm was born in Stockholm in 1943, and his path into art began unusually early. At the age of ten, a neighboring Italian resident gave him oil paints, setting off what would become a lifelong commitment to image-making. He trained formally at Konstfack from 1960 to 1963, then continued at the Royal Institute of Art (Konsthögskolan) from 1963 to 1968, receiving one of the most rigorous educations available in Sweden at the time. He later served as a professor and drawing teacher, passing on technical discipline to younger generations.
His painting operates in a space where figuration and atmosphere are inseparable. The works draw on poetic and quietly mysterious sources - abstract human figures, suggestive natural scenes, thresholds and in-between moments. Giorgio Morandi, Alberto Giacometti, and Jasper Johns are among the artists Gripenholm has cited as touchstones, a grouping that signals his interest in restraint, surface, and the ambiguity between presence and absence. Music has also shaped his practice: in 1969 he played drums in the New Orleans Crusaders, and he has spoken about good painting having an essentially musical quality.
Gripenholm has worked extensively across both painting and printmaking, with a lithographic portfolio spanning from 1976 to 2007. In painting, his preferred technique combines egg tempera and oil in a mixed method that builds up the surface slowly, allowing works to develop organically. He has often worked in thematic series, returning to recurring figures - bathers, urban spaces, dancers - across multiple prints and canvases. Titles in his auction record include "Stadsrum" (city space), "Sista Dansen" (last dance), "Badaren" and "Badare" (the bather), suggesting a sustained preoccupation with the human figure in relation to its surroundings.
In 1986 he was elected a member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (Kungliga Akademien för de fria Konsterna), a formal recognition of his standing within Swedish art institutions. He is a member of Grafiska Sällskapet, the Swedish society for graphic arts, further anchoring his dual identity as both painter and printmaker. His work is held in collections at Moderna Museet and Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, the Gothenburg Museum of Art, Sundsvall Museum, the British Museum in London, the Knecht Drenth Foundation in Amsterdam, and in the Dutch Royal House collection. International exhibitions have taken his work to Belgium, Canada, South Korea, and Taiwan.
On the Swedish auction market, Gripenholm's prints have found steady buyers at the major houses. Bukowskis Stockholm accounts for the highest volume of his auction appearances, followed by Karlstad Hammarö Auktionsverk, Stockholms Auktionsverk Magasin 5, and Metropol. Top results include 5,500 SEK for the color lithograph "Stadsrum" and 5,010 SEK for "Sista Dansen." His 41 auction lots are dominated by prints and engravings, which make up the clear majority of the market, with a smaller number of paintings. Prices reflect a collector base that values his graphic editions - signed and numbered lithographs and serigraphs from the 1980s and 1990s appear consistently across houses.