Ulf Ingwall had his first major solo exhibition at Södertälje konsthall in 1974. His exhibition was part of a series of exhibitions that the art gallery has chosen to call a young debut. Ingwall was born in 1947, in parallel with his studies at the Stockholm Academy of the Arts, he trained as a violinist. All his life until his death in 2015, he was an active colorful cultural personality in the municipality, with his proud attitude, his long dark hair and bushy beard.
At the request of Södertälje konsthalls former director Per Drougge, he was involved in forming the string quartet Hasiorkvartetten, (the Hasior quartet) named after the artist Wladyslaw Hasior who through several exhibitions in the art gallery and through the sculpture group Solspann at the bathhouse hill, left a strong mark on the municipality. Ingwall was active in the Södertälje opera, the orchestra association and St: a Ragnhilds chamber orchestra, etc. He also supported himself as a violin teacher. After the end of the working day, he took the car to his dear studio at Saltskog Gård. Here he stayed for 20 years until his sudden death. He hurried in and closed the door behind him. Concentration and determination were characteristic. Something sacred about one’s own room.
Ingwall painted in oil, it smelled like turpentine about his art. The motifs were often sea, landscape but also a lot of portraits, not least self-portraits. It came naturally with a memorial exhibition at Saltskog Gård in 2016 when the door to his studio was also open. The painter’s coat hung on a hook, all left in the middle of a process with some more or less half-finished paintings. In the archive folder from Ulf Ingwall’s debut, only the exhibition list is preserved. But we hope and believe that we will find photographs in the future from other contexts in the art gallery.
Ulf Ingwall received Länstidningen’s culture prize and Södertälje municipality’s culture prize during his work as an artist.
Sources: Compiled by Anneli Karlsson, presentation poster by Göran Pettersson, Saltskog Gård-Liljewalch’s home, exhibition list from the debut at the art gallery.
