1960s Screens and Room Dividers

Spectacular sculptural room divider by Fred Leyman, custom-made for Majorna Library in Gothenburg in 1963. This piece is one of four that are each unique, made from wrought iron and hardened leather. The room dividers were granted substantial public interest and the studies for them were subsequently exhibited at Liljevalchs Konsthall in 1966. They were returned to the artist in the 1990s and acquired by Nordlings from the Leyman family in 2016. Fred Leyman was a Swedish artist, schooled at the renowned Valand Art Academy in Gothenburg during the 1950s. Leyman worked in a distinctly modernist style influenced by the international modernist movement, music, political ideas and the environment in which he lived. He is best known for his around 40 large-scale sculptures erected in public spaces in Gothenburg and other parts of southwestern Sweden. Fred Leyman lived on the island of Orust with his wife and children, in accordance with what he found to be ”a good life” close to nature on a small farm with sheep and horses. He was also deeply interested in music, particularly traditional folk music. Both the open, marine landscape of Orust and the rhytmical qualitites in music were vital forces in his artistry and in the development of his personal style. Leyman used iron and steel and sometimes wood and leather in his sculptures. These are characterized by sharp and billowing graphic lines and the use of negative space, seemingly always reaching somewhere. It is an expression striking the perfect balance between abstract and concrete. Leyman’s materials of choice were particularly suitable for large and sustainable...