Imaginistgruppen

Swedish Surrealist group, founded c. 1945, which grew out of the short-lived MINOTAURGRUPPEN. Its founders were C. O. Hult?n, Max Walter Svanberg and Anders ?sterlin (b 1926), and later its members included the artists G?sta Kriland (1917-89), Bertil Lundberg (b 1922), Bengt Orup (b 1916), Bertil Gado (b 1916), Lennart Lindfors and Gudrun ?hlberg-Kriland. The Imaginistgruppen followed the example of the Minotaurgruppen by using the styles and techniques characteristic of Surrealism, as in Hult?n's Beach Statue ( frottage, 1948; Malm?, Kstmus.). In 1947 the group founded its own publishing house in Malm?, and that year it produced a collection of frottages, Dr?mmar ur bladens h?nder ('Dreams from the hands of leaves'), by Hult?n. F?rsta fasen ('First phase'), a text on Imaginism written by Svanberg in 1948, was included in the catalogue of an exhibition of his work in G?teborg in 1949. In this 'manifesto', the first part of his Deklarationer om imaginism i tre utvecklingsfaser ('Declarations on Imaginism in three phases'), Svanberg discussed the crucial role played by imagination, stressing the free and revolutionary nature of Imaginist art. He claimed that the image, which contained disparate elements, was central and that its realization required the overthrow of traditional art forms, as these were based on reality. These were all familiar Surrealist ideas, and Svanberg developed them further in Andra fasen ('Second phase') (1950) and Tredje fasen ('Third phase') (1952), so becoming the group's chief theorist. The Imaginistgruppen participated in the Surrealist exhibition held at the Galerie Aleby in Stockholm in 1949, and Imaginistgruppen exhibitions were held in Stockholm in 1951, in Malm? and G?teborg in 1952, at the Galerie de Babylone in Paris in 1953 and at Lund University in 1954. In 1950 the publishing house issued an album of eight lithographs by Svanberg. Svanberg left the group in 1953, claiming to be the only true Imaginist, but the group continued in existence until 1956.

See the Abbreviations for further details.