Max Walter Svanberg

Swedish painter, printmaker and illustrator, born in February 1912 in Malmö, died on 28 May 1994.

Life

Max Walter Svanberg first dreamed of becoming a violin maker. In 1929 he joined the advertising studio of the Palladium cinema in Malmö, attended the Skånska Målarskolan in 1931 and 1932, then, having been turned down by the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm in 1933, Otte Sköld’s painting school. Struck by polio in the autumn of 1934, he first exhibited in 1935, at Ekström’s in Stockholm. In 1940 he married Gunni Sjöström, his companion since 1931, who died in 1982.

In 1943 he exhibited with the Minotaur group at Malmö town hall, then founded the Imaginists group (Imaginisterna) with C. O. Hultén and Anders Österlin, for which he wrote declarations in 1949 and 1950. André Breton discovered his work in 1953: in 1954 issue no. 3 of the review Médium, which he illustrated, opened with Breton’s “Hommage à Max Walter Svanberg”, and in 1955 the Galerie À l’Étoile scellée exhibited him with a preface by Breton. He appeared in L’Art magique (1957), took part in the International Surrealist Exhibitions in Paris (Galerie Daniel Cordier, 1959), New York (1960) and Milan (1961), and only met Breton in 1964.

He represented Sweden at the 8th São Paulo Biennial in 1965. He received the Prince Eugen Medal (1965), joined the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts (1968) and received the Légion d’honneur in 1969.

The work

The female body, intermingled with plant and animal elements, is the central motif of his work. A painter, notably in gouache, he made prints from 1945, published an album of eight lithographs in 1950 and practised collage (a suite exhibited in 1964). He illustrated Rimbaud’s Illuminations (1958) and in 1970 designed the sets and costumes for Molière’s Le Misanthrope at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm.

Exhibitions and collections

• Moderna Museet and Nationalmuseum (Stockholm), Malmö Museum, Göteborgs Konstmuseum; Tate Modern and British Museum (London); Museum of Modern Art (New York); National Gallery of Art (Washington).
• Retrospective at the Göteborgs Konsthall (1967); memorial exhibitions at the Nationalmuseum and the Malmö Konstmuseum (1995); centenary in 2012.
• Surrealist Prelude, Galerie Les Yeux Fertiles, 7 June to 6 July 2024, with a Sans titre (1960, gouache on paper, 45 x 37.5 cm).