- Group Exhibition »ORTHODOX ABSTRACTION (and of course there was poetry)« Berlin, 2020
- »Painting and Sculpture 1951-1980« Berlin, 2015
- Group Exhibition »Umstülpung - curated by Günter Umberg« Berlin, 2012
- »100 Years« Stockholm, 2011
- Group Exhibition »DOG STAR MAN« Berlin, 2009
- »Olle Baertling« Berlin, 2006
- »Olle Bærtling Skulpturer« Stockholm, 1994
- »Olle Bærtling« Malmö, 1984
- »Olle Bærtling« Malmö, 1981
- Group Exhibition »Réalités Nouvelles 1946-56« Malmö, 1979
- »First solo exhibition with Olle Bærtling« Malmö, 1976
KSARD, 1980, oil on canvas, 195 x 97 cm
Olle Bærtling »KSARD«
Focus
Galerie Nordenhake started working with Olle Bærtling in 1976 with a solo exhibition in the original gallery space in Malmö.
The exhibition became significant for the gallery's development and program, not least because of Bærtling's personality and his belief that Modern Art was abstract and geometric, without references to any surrounding reality.
The year before Bærtling passed away in 1981, he completed KSARD - the last and, as Bærtling in his inimitable way said, “most radical painting. Absolutely unsellable." Nevertheless, the painting was sold to Bærtling's longtime friend and collector, the soccer player Nisse Liedholm, who often visited Bærtling when he stayed in Stockholm. About ten years later, I managed to acquire the painting, which has since been in the gallery's possession.
The painting has unusually open angles, the colour is Bærtling White and the then-newly developed "Quinacridone", a red-violet shade which Bærtling perceived as pure energy.
- Claes Nordenhake
Olle Bærtling was born in Halmstad, Sweden. He spent the majority of his career in Stockholm, where he died in 1981.
Since the 1950s, Bærtling's work has been presented in many solo and group exhibitions, both in Sweden and internationally. In 1954, he represented Sweden at the Venice Biennial. He was honoured with several important prizes, including the award of the 7th Biennial of São Paulo in 1963. In 1981, Malmö Konsthall and Stockholm's Moderna Museet compiled the first comprehensive survey exhibition of Bærtling's work. In 2007 Moderna Museet Stockholm and National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo presented a new survey exhibition of Bærtling that was also on view at the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas, founded by Donald Judd in 2008.