As early as at an age of eleven, he started to make portraits, in one way or the other. Some portraits were ordered, and other types of portraits Mats painted to exhibitions, and these have been sold gradually. All portraying is the same thing, from his point of view, the individual. Mats always felt the reflection of a personality in a face, a body, a figure as incredibly interesting. It has been a spontaneous need for him to work with this. The economy has been saved by the ordering of portraits that he has got.
Mats primary has been working with easel art, painting, drawing and
graphics. Art in a more intimately size. There were no graphics in Norrbotten
when he came home, but he had learn to etch and make dry-points at the Valand
College of Art. During the sixties a whole cadre of artists came up in the
county, and in Luleaa. The cause of
that is the fact that the museum in the town, at that point, became very active
within the art, and really made an effort to follow up what happened in the
county art wise, and stimulate that. In just a couple of years many artists
became active both in Luleaa and in the county.
*
Man bestämde att uppföra en
koppartrycksverkstad på Klockargården i Gammelstad. Den grafikverkstaden stod
färdig hösten 1967, samtidigt som teatern kom till stan. På Mats initiativ fick
de som då sysslade med grafik göra teaterbilder, som ställdes ut samtidigt som
premiären. Pjäsen var då ”De förödmjukade” av Dostojevskij.
Verkstaden i Klockargården
Gammelstad var bara i gång i ett par år. Den brann ner, och
1966,
detalj av etsning i en broschyr från Klockargården / 1966,
detail from an etching in a brochure from Klockargaarden
bland annat förstördes Mats’ och andra konstnärers grafikplåtar och grafiska konstverk. Efter den branden var det ingen grafisk produktion i Luleå på ett par år. Men så fick man möjlighet att trycka grafik på Sunderbyns folkhögskolas konstlinje. Mats var där en hel del och började så smått med den grafiska konsten igen. Genom Bengt Andersson, bildningskonsulenten, gjordes det en ordentlig grafisk verkstad i Bildningsförbundets lokaler omkring 1980. Den fortsatte ända tills för några år sedan när den flyttades över till Kronan i stadens utkant.
*
It was decided to construct a copper print workshop in a house
called the Klockargaarden in Gammelstad, outside Luleaa. That copper print
workshop was completed in the fall 1967, at the same time as the theatre came
to town. On Mats initiative all people who worked there with graphics could do
pictures for the theatre, pictures that were exhibit at the same time as the
opening day. The play at that time was “The humiliated” by Dostovjevskij.
Etsning: I väntan på Gogol. / Etching: Waiting for Gogol.
The workshop in Klockargaarden in
Gammelstad was active only for a couple of years. It burned down, and all
graphic plates and graphic art pieces by Mats and all the other artists, were
destroyed. After that fire there were no graphic production in Luleaa for a
couple of years. But then it was given an opportunity to print graphic at the
art line on Sunderbyns College. Mats spend a lot of time there and slowly
started up with the graphic art again. Through Bengt Andersson, culture
consultant, a proper graphic workshop was made in the localities of the
Educational Association around 1980. That continued up until a couple of years
ago when it was moved to Kronan in the outskirts of the town.
*
Mats har utöver måleri och
teckning, arbetat med etsning och torrnål, dvs svartvit koppargrafik i en
ganska klassisk stil. Under 60-talet då när han kommit hem, började han måla av
människor han mötte, och han hade en idé om gruppbilder, som blev
vidareutveckling av porträttmålningen. Gruppbilder kunde han arbeta med via de
teaterbilder han gjorde. Han hade nämligen fortsatt att av och till göra dessa bilder
av produktioner på Norrbottensteaterns uppsättningar. Teater handlar ju som
regel om relationer mellan människor det handlar om, det är ju det som är
teater. Detta har alltid intresserat Mats. Den typen av gruppbilder var baserad
på en story, på tydliga spänningar. Gruppbilderna som han då framför allt
målade av sina vänner var mera tidsskildringar, popen kom ju då. Beatles kom. I
mitten på 60-talet.
*
Except from painting and drawing, Mats has worked with etching and dry-point, that is to say black-white copper graphic in quite a classical style. During the sixties when he returned home, he started to paint people he met, and he had a vision of group-portraits, that became a further development of the portraiture. He could work with the group-portraits through the pictures he made for the theatre. Cause he had continued to make these pictures of the productions by the Theatre of Norrbotten. Theatre normally is about relations between people. This always have fascinated Mats. That type of group-portraits was based on a story with evident tensions. Group-portraits that he primary made of his friends were illustrations of time, the pop came at that time. Beatles came. In the middle of the sixties.