Allan Friis

Allan Friis, a Swedish painter, born in Malm 1931



Allan Friis made his dbut at the age of 19. Friis was early influenced by the Imaginism as well as the Danish Dutch Cobra group, particularly Henning Pedersen and Svend-Wiig Hansen.

The imaginative world with hybrid shapes of animals, plants and human beings was characteristic of Friis' works almost during a decade.

A change in Friis' imagery took place in 1964. He now found his earlier imagery insufficient to describe the human beings' existential conditions and its alienated relationship to the fast economic technological development. The human beings' relation to the technology, its smallness and exposure on being confronted with an, obviously, fated cybernetic existence, is described as a science-fiction-like architectonic and technical world, often with a surrealistic suggestion.

The tendency to describe our time, which was seen during the 1960's, gradually became more powerful and the paintings got a sharper social orientated and critical imagery, mentioning important social and existential questions.

Furthermore, Friis is proceeding with his social commentating pictures (in different techniques), among others "Social Studies" (lin...

Education Painting and graphic art at Sljdfreningens school, Gothenburg, 1948-51

The College of Arts (Konstfack) Stockholm, 1953-58

Bachelor of Science, University of Lund, 1978
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