Harry Booström

Harry Sixten Booström (1917–1996) was a Swedish painter associated with the development of abstract and Concrete art in post-war Sweden. Beginning with more representational and abstract painting, he gradually moved toward a purely non-representational language based on geometric forms, colour and rhythm.

Biography

Booström was born in Guldrup on Gotland in 1917. He studied painting under Edvard Berggren during the first half of the 1940s and later under Isaac Grünewald. Following his studies, he travelled extensively, including periods in Denmark, Belgium, France and Tunisia. In 1948 he settled in Stockholm, while continuing to spend his summers on Gotland, whose landscape and nature remained an important source of inspiration.

Booström emerged during the period when Concrete art was gaining considerable influence in Sweden. He was a contemporary of the artists associated with the influential group 1947 års män and shared their interest in abstraction and geometric construction. During the 1950s, his work developed toward a fully non-representational form of Concrete painting, composed from basic geometric elements and carefully balanced relationships between colour and form.

His compositions frequently explored contrasts between warm and cool colours, repeated squares and other geometric shapes arranged into rhythmic structures. Rather than depicting recognizable subjects, Booström used these elements to create movement, tension and visual balance within the picture plane.

Booström exhibited regularly from the late 1940s onwards. He participated in exhibitions including Ung tecknare at Nationalmuseum, Konst på papper, Den Frie in Copenhagen, Espace in Stockholm and Réalités Nouvelles in Paris. He was also a member of the international Groupe Espace, which promoted closer collaboration between artists and architects and sought to integrate abstract art with the built environment.