All I Have Learned And Forgotten Again

For the past fortnight or so I've been leafing through the pages of this beautifully presented monograph on the renowned Swedish artist Jockum Nordström. Comprising of almost a hundred works, the book is a strange unfolding hinterland of oddly poetic images. Objects, animals and people are painted, drawn and collaged into uncanny, open-ended narratives. There is a peculiar yet appealing discomposure to much of Nordström's work. His images manage to marry a finely tuned sense of draughtsmanship with an oddly naïve charm creating a disconcerting visual landscape populated by owls, stark Modernist architecture, tall ships, and Victorian Dandies. With each successive image, Nordström presents a liminal world of strange frailties where folk art charm sits uneasily next to the peccadilloes of an industrial age, a world where despite the forest of suburban signifiers, the feeling is very much pre electric, otherworldly  and magical. A superb publication.

All I Have Learned And Forgotten Again is published by Hatje Cantz

For more info on Jockum Nordström, see previous posts here, here and here.

Utan Söm Och Socka, Hellvi Kännungs, Gotland

The Impoverished Architectural Models Of Jockum Nordström

Who Is Sleeping On My Pillow

One of my favourite artists, Jockum Nordström, has a new exhibition opening at the David Zwirner gallery at the end of this month.  There's some absolutely stunning examples of his collage based work on show.  The exhibition runs from 29th April to June 12th.  If you're in the vicinity of New York during these dates, I recommend you pay the gallery a visit.

Jockum Nordström

Jockum Nordström is a Swedish artist best known for his collages, paintings, drawings and sculptures that knit together references to folk art and outsider art, jazz, surrealist collage, furniture and architectural design, human sexual habits and maritime lore.  What I like about his work is that it combines a childlike primitivism with incredible draughtsmanship.  Sadly, there are only two long out of print monographs which document his work.  Hopefuly another will go to press shortly.  Michael who runs one of my favourite blogs Stopping Off Place emailed me to say that there is also a great compilation of his first three children's books availiable from the Fine Little Day shop.