NILS KÖLARE

exhibition view. photo Ann Frössén

Squares.

The square is as high and wide as a man with his arms stretched out. In the most ancient writings,
and in the rock inscriptions of early man, it signifies the idea of enclosure, of house, of settlement.
Enigmatic in its simplicity, in the monotonous repetition of four equal sides and four equal
angles, it creates a series of interesting figures: a whole groupe of harmonic rectangles, the golden
section, and the logarithmic spiral, which also occurs in nature in the organic growth of plants and
in parts of animals.
With its structural possibilities it has helped artists and architects of all epochs and styles by
giving them a harmonic skeleton on which to build an artistic construction. It is therefore present
in all styles of all people during all periods, both as a structural element and as a surface to support
and determine a particular form of decoration. It is static if it stands on its side and dynamic
if it stands on an angle.
It has given form both to famous ancient cities and to modern buildings: Babylon, Tell el Amarna,
the Parthenon, the Arc of Septimius Severus, the Duomo of Pisa, Palazzo Farnese, Le Corbusier’s
museum of unlimited extendability...
The bays of the portico of Brunelleschi’s Foundling Hospital are square. In the ground-plans
of many churches the square area below is the most logical answer to the hemispherical dome
above, just as a square photograph corresponds, with the minimum distortion or waste, to the
round lens of the camera. Phidias used a square form for his lacunaria. At Olympia, the Palestra,
the Theocoleon, the Leonidaeum and other buildings had square ground plans...
In the Eastern Chin dynasty it gave the Chinese written character its square form. It has given
structure to the letters of our own, of the Hebrew and other alphabets. All over the world, a small
square of linen is a handkerchief. Two squares of matting are the basic unit of the traditional
Japanese house. Twenty-eight squares cover the surface of a brick. According to an old Chinese
saying the infinite is a square without angles. “The square is the purest form of a spatial idea complete
in itself. It represents one of the orders of pregnant spiritual symbolism. All other rectangles
are squares which depart from the norm by the extension of height or width”

Bruno Munari

exhibition view. photo Ann Frössén

Nils Kölare, photo Hedvig Stabell

NILS KÖLARE
1930 - 2007

60 SEPARATE EXHIBITIONS OUT OF WHICH
19 ARE SELECTED:
1972 Galerie Aronowitsch, Stockholm
1976 Galerie Aronowitsch, Stockholm
1978 Norrköpings Museum
1979 Galerie Aronowitsch, Stockholm
1982 Galerie Aronowitsch, Stockholm
1984 Galerie Aronowitsch, Stockholm
1987 Galerie Aronowitsch, Stockholm
1989 Galleri Tornvall, Forum Hamburg
1989 Galerie Aronowitsch, Stockholm
1992 Galerie Aronowitsch, Stockholm
1995 Lidköpings Konsthall
1996 Galerie Aronowitsch, Stockholm
1998 Konsthallen Enköping
1998 Konsthallen Härnösand
1999 Prins Eugens Waldermarsudde, Stockholm
2002 Konstakademien, Stockholm
2002 Nyköpings Museum
2003 Galleri Bergman, Stockholm
2005 Galerie Konstruktiv Tendens, Stockholm

24 OFFICIAL ASSIGNMENTS AND COMPETITIONS
OUT OF WHICH 8 ARE SELECTED:
1979 Mural in hallway SGU:S new building in Uppsala, assigned by Statens Konstråd
1982 Two facade paintings in enamel for officeand industrial buildings in Marievik, Stockholm
1983 1:a prize in award for entryway in Jönköpings Läns landstings Central Hospital, Ryhov, Jönköping
1984–86 Four paintings in the new Post Office terminal Gothenburg, assigned by Statens Konstråd
1984 Mural in hallway at Igelsta vårdskola, Södertälje
1991 Art for common room, A1/14, Trängcentrum in Linköping assigned by Statens Konstråd
2002 Mural at RestaurangTeatergrillen, Stockholm
2003 Mural, KTH in Stockholm assigned by Statens Konstråd

111 COLLECTIVE EXHIBITIONS OUT OF WHICH
18 HAVE BEEN SELECTED HERE:
1962 Prix Europe de Peinture Ostende, Belgien
1966 Konstakademien, Water colour and collage, Stockholm
1977 Museo de Arte Moderno, Swedish exhibition arranged by Nunsku Mexico City, Mexico
1978 Kulturhuset, Konstruktivister, Stockholm
1979 Tour Exhibition Swedish graphics, arr. Nunsku USA, Canada
1981 Centre Culturel Suédois, Nils Kölare – Bo Swensson Paris
1981 Liljevalchs konsthall, Konsekvens, hommage to Olle Baertling, Stockholm
1985 Galerie Bleue, Olle Bonniér – Nils Kölare, Stockholm
1985 Norrbottens Museum, Norrut-85, Aschenbrenner, L.G. Lundberg, Kölare and Lyth, Luleå
1986 Härnösands konsthall
1987 Handarbetets vänners exhibition, Japan, USA and Sweden
1988 Galleri Zero, 6 konstruktiva, Albers, Baertling, Karlsson, Kölare, Mortensen and Vasarely, Stockholm
1989–91 Grand Palais, Saga-Salon de l’estampe et de l’edition d’art, Aschenbrenner, Hillfon, Karlsson, Kölare, L.G. Lundberg and Lyth, Paris
1992 Galleri Astley, Art Concret, Seattle USA
1994 Rooseum Malmö
1997 Prins Eugens Waldemarsudde, Stockholm
1997 Göteborgs konstmuseum
2005 Konsthallen i Hishult, Söderut-05, Aschenbrenner, L.G. Lundberg, Kölare and Lyth

REPRESENTED AT:
Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, sketches and graphics
Moderna Museet in Stockholm
Norrköpings konstmuseum
Eskilstuna museum
Gävle museum
Sundsvalls museum
Rooseum i Malmö
Västerås museum
and a number of private collections

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