The early years

The three cousins: Axel, Erik and Waldemar show an interest in art and painting already in their early teens. In their juvernile works artistic motifs are found in nature and sites around Halmstad. When they attend the Baltic exhibition in Malmö in 1914 however they see a work by the world famous artist Kandinsky; his nonfigurative art with abstract, dynamic compositions and symbolic colour use had never before been shown in Sweden. Kandinsky´s way of painting changes the boys´ way of looking at art and opens a completely new world. Together they form a group: Gnistan (The Spark) in 1915. They paint, write poetry, and travel to Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö to see art and be inspired. In 1919 the group shows at an exhibition of amateurs in Halmstad and the work of the young men is discovered by Egon Östlund, a machine engineer and art lover with prodigious contacts in the art world — among others the artist Gösta Adrian-Nilsson (GAN) who plays an important role for the young Halmstad artists.

That year, the Halmstad boy Esaias Thorén sees a modernistic painting in a shop window; Sparmann´s Flight by GAN. This first meeting with modern art prompts Thorén to start paining. Sven Jonson grows up in Söndrum just outside of Halmstad in a family of craftsmen and fishermen. He becomes a painter´s apprentice early on and eventually a painter by trade. However, several years pass before he decides to follow the artistic path.

The sixth young man who will become a member of the Halmstad Group, Stellan Mörner, spends the summers of his youth on the family estate Esplunda, near Örebro. Stellan draws and paints interiors, often using the back side of old family portraits that he finds in the attic. At this stage he only dreams of a future as an artist.

Next: Studies in Berlin and Paris