Mats Gustafson Nature and Melancholia

Born in 1951, Mats Gustafson began his career as a fashion illustrator in the late 1970s, a time when watercolour as a conceptual medium had barely been explored. A graduate of Dramatiska Institutet (University College of Film, Radio, Television and Theatre) in Stockholm, he first applied his graphic sensibility to the art of stage design. The elegant and subtly expressive character of Gustafson’s watercolour, pastel and cut-out paper works expanded the possibilities of fashion illustration and nearly single-handedly reinvigorated the genre. 

Liquid fields of colour, dramatic reduction, transparency, and masterful, calligraphic lines are all characteristic of the artworks that Mats Gustafson has been producing internationally for more than 40 years. Gustafson’s fashion and portrait illustrations have been included in magazines like Vogue and Harpers Bazar, and he has created advertising art for Hermès, Tiffany & Co., Yohji Yamamoto, Comme des Garçons and DIOR. 

In November we see another side of his work, a world set entirely in nature. This world has a more thoughtful, personal, and serious dimension, expressed masterfully in watercolours, and soft pastels, produced from 1996 and onwards. Earlier in 2023, Gustafson’s series of nature motifs were on view at Millesgården, in a highly appreciated exhibition. This exhibition at CFHILL follows the same theme.

November depicts a sombre world, where Gustafson shows us his masterful watercolour alongside mesmerising soft pastels in nature motifs. This is where the winter sun casts a misty light on a low horizon, where the morning or evening fog never seems to quite ease, and there is only a hint of the sun’s existence. Here, we see some of the elegant and subtly expressive landscapes inspired from Gustafson’s favourite scenes in the countryside, where the contours blur together, constituting the abstract suggestion of trees by a lake: his use of pastels is perfect for the purpose of producing the candid light of a dewy autumn. We see a portrait-like series of rocks, trees, deer, and of course swans, a reoccurring subject for Gustafson. Finally, we see a series of snowflakes in watercolour, that were used as templates for a serving tray produced by Svenskt Tenn in 2010.

Gustafson’s move from Manhattan to East End Long Island some 20 years ago allowed him to more frequently observe, and in turn portray, nature. The attention to detail in his art reveals a yearning, a kind of devotion reserved for things we long for but don’t take for granted. Ultimately, his love of nature and of the urban feed inform one another, each providing fuel when he works with the other. More deeply, Gustafson believes that if you look hard enough, you can identify something’s essence. Viewing one of his subjects is to envision it instead of seeing it with your eyes. This is Mats Gustafson’s gift: to tenderly draw out the beauty that resides in the ordinary and make us recognise that we’ve known it all along.

November takes us on a journey through the cool and thoughtful atmosphere of autumn, where the soft colour scales give life to the changing shades of nature. Mats Gustafson is a master at capturing the dignity and melancholia so present in the season. This is a collection of works that breathes nordic autumn like nothing else.