Regarded as a pioneer of the Swedish modernist art movement, Gösta Adrian Nilsson, known as GAN, was born in the South of Sweden. He studied in Copenhagen, first at Copenhagen Technical College and then at Zahrtmann's school.
Between 1912 and 1914, GAN made several visits to Germany to study modernism where through the writer Herwarth Walden's gallery 'Der Sturm' he came into contact with contemporary art movements. Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc's work greatly influenced him and he adopted a Cubist-Futurist style of painting that focused on the modern metropolis and sought to unite Futurism's machine worship with Kandinsky's esoteric thought.
GAN's dynamic, geometrically determined reflections on contemporary urban existence secured his reputation as the first artist to introduce abstract art to Sweden. The 1918, now legendary exhibition, “Sailor Compositions” showing Cubist-Futurist depictions of sailors at Gummesson’s art gallery in Stockholm. become a milestone in Swedish modern art history.
Sailors are a recurring theme in GAN's oeuvre. Intense, modern, colourful and geometric in form, showing a joy in male strength, they reflect GAN's time spent at the Stockholm docks where his partner was a sailor in the Swedish Army.
In 1920, GAN moved to Paris where he began experimenting with painted wooden reliefs and sculpture. He remained in Paris until 1925 when he returned to his native Sweden and he fostered the development of geometric abstraction in Scandinavian art with many young artists following him.
In addition to oil paintings, GAN produced watercolours, wrote short stories and illustrated children's books.
GAN's work was criticised by the art establishment during his lifetime as being 'chaotic' and for being homoerotic. But GAN's legacy has been great and he is now a highly sought after artist considered as one of the pioneers of Swedish modern art.