Lars Englund

The honorary scholarship 2016

Lars Englund is a Swedish sculptor who became known in the 1960s for his non-figurative works made of plastic, rubber, concrete, and carbon fiber inspired by the modern era’s industrial materials. Born in 1933 in Stockholm, Englund lives and works in Jonstorp and Stockholm. He studied under Vilhelm Bjerke-Petersen in 1950-1951 and under Fernand Léger in Paris in 1952. Since his first exhibition at Lilla Paviljongen in Stockholm in 1953, his works have been featured in numerous exhibitions in Sweden and abroad, including a major retrospective solo exhibition at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm in 2005. He has created several public installations both indoors and outdoors, such as at the Stockholm Police Headquarters in 1975 and in Hammarby Sjöstad in Stockholm in 2010. He was appointed as a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts in 1984.

Justification:

Similar to Bærtling, Englund studied under Fernand Léger in Paris, and both artists have shown a significant commitment to the development of non-figurative expression in both traditional art settings and in public spaces. Lars Englund’s development of complex spatial structures finds its counterpart in the spatial concepts that Bærtling worked with since the 1950s, which he later termed “open form.” While Bærtling moved towards monumental scale and simple forms, Englund has worked with folding and repeating basic forms. In both cases, spatial dimensions are created that are simultaneously clear and intricate.