Curt Clemens 1911-1947

Curt Anders Clemens was born in Stockholm on 23rd January 1911. He was a Swedish painter.

Clemens attended Otte Sköld's Painting School (Otte Skölds Målarskola) in Stockholm (1928-1930). He then travelled to Paris (1930-1932)

He first exhibited in Stockholm in 1932 with a group of six friends from Otte Sköld's painting school. The exhibition was called 'Sex Nya' (Six New) and was held at Josephsons Konsthall (Josephson's Art Hall). Clemens travelled to Italy, Spain, Norway and Estonia in 1935.

In January 1938, Clemens was part of the 'Young Swedish Art’ (Ung Svensk Konst) exhibition at the Swedish-French Art Gallery (Svensk-Franska Konstgalleriet), Stockholm. Other exhibitors included Lennart Gram (1919-1996), Tage Hedquist (1909-1997), Kurt Carendi (1905-1971) and Alf Lindberg (1905-1990). Clemens was also part of the 'Young Swedish Parisian Art’ (Ung Svensk Pariserkonst) at Institut Tessan (also known as the Centre Culturel Suédois), Paris, in September 1938.

Clemens’ first solo exhibition was at Swedish-French Art Gallery in 1939. The exhibition was a great success - One critic wrote 'It happens very rarely that an artist's first solo exhibition displays such clarity, maturity and content'.

Clemens exhibited at the Swedish-French Art Gallery again in 1940 and was part of their 'Four Painters’ (Fyra Målare) exhibition in 1943. He exhibited in London in 1945.

Clemens married Aili Cicilia Molin in 1942.

Curt Clemens died, tragically as a result of an accident on the stairway at the Strand Hotel, Stockholm, on 15th November 1947, aged 36.

A memorial exhibition was held for him by the Swedish-French Art Gallery in 1948. The Academy of Fine Arts (Konstnärsakademin), Stockholm included his works in exhibitions in 1957 and 1977 and hosted a retrospective exhibition for him in 1997

Examples of Clemens' works are held in the collections of Moderna Museet (Museum of Modern Art) and Nationalmuseum (National Museum) in Stockholm, Gothenburg Art Museum, Malmö Museum, Kalmar Art Museum, Gävle Museum and Östergötland Museum.


Curt  Clemens