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.
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.
