Sanningsvittne i brytningstid: Johan Ahlbäcks utveckling som konstnär

During a long life, Johan Ahlbäck experienced the destitution, filth and exploitation of cheap labour in a Sweden that was still an underdeveloped society without universal suffrage. At the same time as the influence of the reformist labour movement increased after the introduction of general elections, and the development from an agrarian society to a modern industrial nation continued, Ahlbäck was given the opportunity to climb the class ladder. He was trained as a painter and graphic artist by highly qualified teachers, but at the same time he was confronted with aesthetic currents that did not correspond to his own conception of the task of the visual artist: to first and foremost, and without embellishment, depict social reality.

Ahlbäck, originally a steel worker in the industrial village of Smedjebacken, was faced with a lifelong conflict between two needs: to remain close to his place and class of origin, and to achieve recognition in the urban art world. The move back to his native Smedjebacken after graduation meant a definite choice of class solidarity over social climbing, and thus a self-imposed marginalization.

From the end of the 1930s onwards, Ahlbäck was given possibilities to travel abroad and to put his local experiences into a broader perspective. He experienced and depicted first-hand the social distress and reconstruction of defeated Germany after the Second World War. After about 1965, old age meant a resumption and partly a re-evaluation of Ahlbäck's memories of the early 1900s Bergslagen and Smedjebacken.

This study is the result of about a year of more intensive research on Ahlbäck, along with a documentation of his preserved works. We have found that this artistic oeuvre can be counted in thousands of oil paintings, gouaches, drawings and prints, but that a few hundred works stand out as particularly aesthetically and socio-historically interesting. Another conclusion is that Ahlbäck's main contributions were as an illustrator, graphic artist and watercolourist. The critics of the time reiterated that Ahlbäck's strength lies above all in his drawings and in his depiction of bodies in motion. This evaluative judgment seems to be one of lasting validity. Ahlbäck's images of work environments and workplace accidents from the 1930s must be considered an indispensable part of 20th century Scandinavian cultural heritage.