STOCKHOLM.- Håkan Rehnberg is one of Sweden’s most influential artists. He has created paintings and objects since the 1970s, seemingly impervious to the tendencies that have come and gone and influenced discussions on the art scene. Irrespective of the strictness and consistency of Rehnberg’s own art, he has always maintained an openness to other disciplines, including poetry and contemporary dance – thereby perpetually being at the centre of Sweden’s cultural life.

With rare integrity, Håkan Rehnberg, born in 1953, has developed his oeuvre based on abstract painting but gradually stepping into the spatial dimension. His sculptures are often evocative of architecture and engage spectators in a way that makes them both onlookers and participators on a stage. His initially terse paintings have grown more dynamic and eventful over the years. The exhibition at the Moderna Museet features ten recent paintings, and three sculptures: The Sealed Studio, 1999-2000, which is in the Moderna Museet Collection, and two entirely new three-dimensional works.

“Rehnberg’s art consistently seems to be impelled by inner necessity, impossible to capture in words yet entirely obvious once the works have materialised. They are at once both obvious and evasive,” says Daniel Birnbaum, curator.

“A painting grabs us like a whirlwind, and leaves us dumbfounded and shattered,” says Rehnberg. His recent paintings are larger than before. Using oil paint and palette knives on sand-blasted acrylic glass, each work is completed in one session. After applying paint in dabs and fragments, sections are scraped away to reveal the background material. Thus, the image is achieved by reduction and repositioning: “The painting is subtractive, you could say. I can never alter what I have done, so it puts high demands on my concentration and awareness of what is happening,” Rehnberg explains, and adds: “It’s like ploughing a half-unknown terrain. The gesture is very fragmented, and it sort of undoes itself.”

The importance of poetry and philosophy in Rehnberg’s oeuvre is obvious in the contacts he has cultivated with other artists and writers over the years, including the choreographer Margaretha Åsberg and the poet Katarina Frostenson, whose books he has always contributed to as an artist. Rehnberg has also pursued a dialogue stretching over several decades with the author Horace Engdahl. In a recent essay, Engdahl stresses Rehnberg’s natural authority and artistic integrity:

“Anyone in this country with an interest in art will know what a Rehnberg is, or at least that it is something, that it is endowed with a special status and integrity, regardless of what you like or dislike in contemporary art. This authority has, in some peculiar way, arisen even though Håkan Rehnberg has never been a trendsetter or inspired imitation, or personally assumed the role of mentor, demon or celebrity.”

In conjunction with the exhibition Håkan Rehnberg – Double Scene, a book with new critical, poetic and philosophical essays and reflections will be published. The book includes poetry and specially-written texts by Katarina Frostenson, Håkan Rehnberg, Horace Engdahl, Anders Olsson, Stefanie Hessler and Hans Ruin. It also features a transcribed conversation between Håkan Rehnberg and Daniel Birnbaum, the curator. The book contains all of Håkan Rehnberg’s own texts.

Håkan Rehnberg, b. 1953 in Gothenburg, lives and works in Stockholm. Selected solo exhibitions: 2007: Galerie Nordenhake, Stockholm and Berlin; 2006: Studio A, Ottendorf, Germany; 2005: Vida Konsthall, Halltorp; 2004: Sønderjyllands Kunstmuseum, Tønder, Denmark. Selected group exhibitions: 2008: National Art Museum of China, NAMOC, Beijing; 2003: Moderna Museet, Stockholm; 2002: Helsinki Art Museum. The Carnegie Art Award 2002, exhibition in connection with the Award at Reykjavik Art Museum. Member of the Swedish Royal Academy of Fine Arts since 2000.