A few days ago I did visit a retrospective exhibition of the Swedish painter Berta Hansson´s work of art. Berta Hansson (1910-1994) was educated as an elementary school teacher. She worked as a teacher in the small Lapland village Fredrika 1935-45. By a coincidence her art of work was discovered in Frederika and she made her artist debut in Stockholm in 1943 and moved to Stockholm in the late 40´s. As an artist she was very productive and her work of art had a broad range of techniques from paintings to sculpturing. I found her portraits of children most fascinating.
Three years before she died, almost blind, the paintings was filled with birds. This is her last painting and to that she wrote an awesome poem, which I tried to translate from Swedish:
The Last Bird
This evening still a bird landed on my paint-ready canvas.
A big and white one.
The very last one.
How do I know it is my last one?
Well, that is for sure you see.
It is what I feel in heart and marrow.
I struggled a long time with the color, subdued black with white.
When Maria Magdalena church bell rang dull twelve
I left the easel for good.
This ended my life as a painter.
Without self-pity, I think.
But of course with awe.
Now only remains waiting.
Some photos from the exhibition are here.
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