Konstsamlande som livsbehov

Abstract

Summary Existential Pattern in a Collector's Preferences When the young Swedish economist Göran Bergengren finished his studies and settled in the university town of Lund in southernmost Sweden sometime around 1951/52, his primary concern was to set up an establishment of his own. He succeeded in transforming an old manufacturing firm into a modern industry for surgical instruments. His interest in art led him to join the art history seminar at the university,’ where his modest personality was very much appreciated. His strange references to «works« by leading artists in his home, however, caused confusion and some irritation among his fellow students, until we finally understood that he really did have an important collection of modern art. At a very early stage he possessed a splendid little Picasso from 1901, but his primary concern was engravings. When I first got to know him he was collecting mostly Georges Rouault. In his home, under balanced light conditions, he showed his magnificent series of the Miserere and others, and displayed a perfect mastery of every aspect of art development and print detail. At this period of time he appeared as a rather melancholy person, lonely and in a frail state of health. There was certainly some resemblance between his appearance and that of Rouault's gloomy but monumental works. But soon everything changed: he had married, and his joyful and energetic wife changed the appearance of the home little by little while he himself changed his collection ‐ at least he changed its focus. Now it was Picasso's prints which attracted his intense interest, and even if he also possessed some of the characteristically melancholy works from the first years of this century, the main emphasis was on Picasso's engravings from the early 30s onwards—not least on those works in which the classical myths and the exuberant personalities of Zeus, the Minotaur and the Sculptor/Creator have supplied both theme and character. After several years of collecting intensively he was able to show his Picasso collection as a personal achievement and as a personal homage on the occasion of the artist's 70th birthday in 1956: first of all at the Malmö Museum, then in Copenhagen. The catalogue expressed his emotional attachment and sensitivity to Picasso's artistic personality (his wording—contained elements of his own modest identification) as well as to his professional mastery of every technicality in art and print. Ten years later his health had deteriorated to such a degree that he had to give up his professional activities; he moved with his family to Lugano, where he died in 1972. His collection was not kept together after his death.