Provenance: The artist's widow, Eva-Lisa Lennartsson, Stockholm. Thence by descent in the family.

This week, we present a smaller collection of works by the surrealist abstract artist Vilhelm Bjerke-Petersen. We primarily offer his lithographs with concrete compositions, but two surrealist compositions have also made their way to the auction.

Vilhelm Bjerke-Petersen (1909–1957) was a central figure in Danish and Nordic modernism, and his artistic work spans both abstract and figurative surrealism. Bjerke-Petersen had a strong theoretical and philosophical foundation for his art, inspired by surrealist ideals and psychoanalysis, particularly Freud's dream interpretation. This inspiration is evident in his surrealist works, where symbols like stones, trees, and floating figures recur and are used as images of human’s connection with nature and the subconscious. These motifs also appear in his graphic works, where they are translated into the lines and forms of his lithographs. Bjerke-Petersen was not only captivated by surrealism's figurative expression but also by abstraction, which becomes apparent in how his art evolved over time.

A particular phase in Bjerke-Petersen's artistic development can be seen in these lithographs, which he printed himself at his school, Moderna Konstskolan in Stockholm. These lithographs were produced in small editions and self-published by the artist, making them rare and valuable in both artistic and historical contexts. The small production of lithographs at Moderna Konstskolan shows an intense focus on craftsmanship and artistic expression. These prints reflect Bjerke-Petersen's attempt to merge the symbolic world of surrealism with the abstract forms he began to revisit after the war. The prints are also characteristic of the direction he took in the 1950s when he founded his school and published the book “Konkret Konst” in 1956, concluding that concrete art is the most direct path to the essence of art.

Bjerke-Petersen's graphic works, especially his lithographs, stand as important examples of how art can serve as a tool to explore the inner landscapes of humanity. Through his experiments with surrealist figures and the pure forms of abstraction, his work remains a central part of 20th-century art history in Denmark and Scandinavia.