Knut Andersson, Sheep farmer from Tubbebo

Knut Andersson (1934-2021) worked as a sheep farmer on the farm Tubbebo outside Månsarp in Jönköping throughout his life. What few knew was that he was also an artist. Now his work, which stretches between 1950s to the 2010s, is on display in a posthumous exhibition at Liljevalchs+.

Through his paintings, Knut Andersson analyses and comments on the major world events: the military coup in Chile, the assassination of Olof Palme, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Kuwait War, the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan.

His view is deeply humanistic: he stands with the victims and depicts the world from their perspective. Art becomes a shield against war, violence and oppression.

It is via Dagens Nyheter that the world comes to Tubbebo. The news pictures in the magazine serve as inspiration for the motifs. But he adds, subtracts and alters in his photorealistic painting in a way that brings to mind artists such as Ola Billgren and John-E Franzén. The works convince with their consistent grey scale and their special tonality.

Knut Andersson called himself a "critical realist" and said he wanted to create a radical and engaging painting.

During his lifetime, Knut Andersson participated in two group exhibitions, one in 1977 and one in 2016, but he never had the opportunity to show his work in a solo exhibition. For the first time ever, his collected production was shown at Österängens Kunsthall in the spring of 2022, and now the tour has moved on to Liljevalchs.