Olle Krantz:

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There are people who are more active than others.

People with a dream that they want to realise. People who want to leave a legacy. One such person was the Visingsö artist Olle Krantz. Olle Krantz was born on Visingsö in 1906. He grew up together with six siblings in a musical and religious family. Olle eventually became a manager of the local Konsum (Today known as Coop) shop on the northern part of the island. But he also lived another kind of life where he painted and created in his spare time, mostly during the nighttime. His dream was to be able to make a living from his art and to build a artist courtyard so that he and others would have the possibility to create and exhibit. He saw the therapeutic value of painting as a way of handling sorrow and troubles in life and find both happiness and meaning. His main purpose with his art was not to be recognised, but to be living a healthy good life and to experience joy.

 

“The most important thing in life is to not lose faith in your own capability, to not lose your spark. Many people “procrastinate” and believe they can only do the enjoyable things after they retire.

One should not delay what one wants to do, but one tends to do it.”

 

As an artist Olle was very productive. He can not be placed in any special department or field, he searched his way through many different methods and themes of art. In his art you will find a mix of religion, dreams, memories and love.

The paintings often depicts scenes of love, pleasure and women. Other have biblical motives and questions regarding his personal faith. Some paintings depict his life, for example growing up in Visingsö and his first marriage.

 

In 1948 Olle bought the land area in Säby where Tempelgården is today and where his work began. At that time it was only a farmers field except for one house called Kolla-Pelle Stöva. Olle worked in his Konsum store in the days, worked on the field in the evenings and painted in the nighttime. One year after buying the land he chose to quit his stable job and started to paint full time, despite others disbelief in his efforts. But Olle was stubborn, he would live his dream and so he did.

 

“... Every community should have a place for a lubber , and the lubber of Visingsö I am!”

Not many people thought things would go as well as they turned out.

 

Olle made good use of old buildings and moved them to his ground. Tempelgården slowly started to take its shape.

When the theosophic society left the Island they also left their temple. Olle wanted to buy it but was not so well off that he could pay the 20.000 kr that was being asked.

There is many stories about how things went during when Olle purchased the temple. One is that the last day before the final day of the selling he won 20.000 kr from the lottery. Another version is that he got 10.000 kr from selling some of his bonds. The third version is that he borrowed 6000 kr and bought the temple for that amount of money. We are not sure about what the final amount was or how he got the money. But he managed to buy it. He then started the slow process of deconstructing the Temple at it's old site in 1956. It is said he did it using his bicycle trolley and moved three pieces each time to his ground in Säby where he slowly put it back together again.

 

The temple had now gotten it's third location. It is told that Olle used a homemade device made from a mangle to raise the trusses of the building. After the construction was finished he began using the building as his own art studio and gallery for his paintings. The courtyard that is now Tempelgården can be said to be his legacy left to Visingsö and the visitors of the Island.

 

Tempelgården was run by Olle until 1989 when it was sold to relatives who would take over the result of his life's work. Unfortunately it did not turn out that way, instead it was sold to the Hare Krishna movement which where using it as their main centre in Sweden until it was sold in 1992 to be passed on to other entrepreneurs.

Olle was living on Visingsö until he passed away in 1999, but his artist spirit is still alive here in all that he left behind.

The white sculptures is made by him as well as about 60 paintings that can be found in the Temple. Olle made his last exhibition in 1996 and could look back at his life of an artist that had been active more than four decades. He is one of those who gave everything for the art, he created his own universe and kept open to everyone that was interested. We think and hope that there is still a place for such persons that can show an alternative view of the world to make us feel that we don't have to follow the footsteps of everyone else but can choose to walk our own way if we want.

 

We hope that you will enjoy an artists dream and life work!