Mediumistic Visions of Nature: Gudrun Åhlberg Between Imaginism and Surrealism

This article is the first in-depth examination of the Swedish artist Gudrun Åhlberg’s early career in the 1940s and 50s. Drawing on archival materials and the critical reception of the artist, the article details her approach to surrealism and her participation in the surrealist-oriented Imaginist Group alongside Max Walter Svanberg and other artists. Åhlberg’s art during these years was characterized by a figurative surrealism with frequent depictions of nature, often coupled with references to mediumism. The article situates these works in the context of surrealist art, poetics, and theory. More specifically, it places her paintings and gouaches in relation to her visit to the exhibition Le Surréalisme en 1947 in Paris and her concurrent discovery of the art of Victor Brauner. As a member of the Imaginist Group and a participant in the 1949 exhibition Surrealist Manifestation in Stockholm, Åhlberg was an important force in the renewal of surrealism that was taking place in Sweden at the time. But when she and her artist husband Gösta Kriland, a fellow imaginist, divorced in 1950, she was excluded from the continued activities of the group. The article discusses this exclusion in terms of a patriarchal dynamic.