Stig Alyhr 1919-1995
Stig Gustav Alyhr was born in Visby, Goltland - an island south of Stockholm, on 22nd April 1919. He was a Swedish painter and illustrator.
Alyhr was the youngest of five brothers. His father ran a bicycle shop.
In the early 1940s Alyhr attended the Edward Berggrens Målarskola (Edward Berggren's Painting School) when it was located on David Bagares street in Stockholm (1933-1975). The school was a private art school founded in 1920 by the Swedish painter and illustrator Edward Berggren (1876-1961) and the sculptor Gottfrid Larsson (1875-1947). The school was essentially a preparatory school for the Academy of Fine Arts so there was a great emphasis placed on life drawing.
Alyhr then attended Isaac Grünewalds art school (founded in 1941) were he sudied under Grünewald before Grünewalds sudden death in 1946 - Isaac Grünewald (1889-1946) was a Swedish-Jewish expressionist painter widely acknowledged as being responsible for introducing Modernism to Sweden.
Alyhr later commented that if it had not been for Grünewalds school, where he was given the freedom to explore colour and line, he would have been frozen to painting conventional portraits and detailed landscapes. (Grünewald påverkade mig mycket till ett friare måleri. Till känsla i färger och linjer. Hade det här inte skett hade jag nog kunnat låsa mig till att måla konventionella porträtt och detaljerade landskapsbilder.)
After the War, Alyhr took study trips to Barcelona, Ibiza and (in 1949) Italy. It was during this time that he travelled with the Circus Orlando - initially to make studies of the animals, but soon became involved in the circuss set and costume design. It was during this time that he met his first wife, Vanya. When he returned to Sweden in 1950 he bought a framhouse in Fårö but would often return to the Mediterranean island of Corsica and Mallorca.
Alyhr exhibitioned at the Gotland Art Association exhibitions (Gotlands Konstförenings utställningar) in Visby (1943 and 1945) and had a solo exhibition at Ekström's (Ekströms konsthall), Stockholm in 1950. Alyhr aslo had several exhibitions in Germany. Examples of Alyhrs work are held in the collections of the Lenbachhaus in Munich and Gotland Art Association (Gotlands konstförening).
Alyhr was involved in an elevator accident in Germany in 1987 which he sadly never fully recovered. Stig Alyhr died in Fårö in 1995, aged 76.