In memory of Höken

Sven-Arne “Höken” Hökenström (20 May 1947 – 18 February 2025) was Tanya's father. Father and daughter exhibited together, and in 2020 Mitt Roslagen photographed them painting side by side on a single canvas in Norrtälje.

His life in art

• Born in Stockholm in 1947 and grew up in Aspudden.
• Trained as a scenic painter (kulissmålare) at the Royal Theatre (Kungliga teatern) in Stockholm, 1965–1971, and studied at Pernbys and Fetcós painting schools. He was a pupil of Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd.
• One of Stockholm's — and Sweden's — first graffiti painters. In the 1980s he led Sweden's first graffiti school, run by Fryshuset, and became, in the words of the artist Lee “Brain” Spångberg, “a bridge between the graffiti world and the rest of the art world”.
• His paintings often drew on historical events and people. He is represented at Nationalmuseum, Moderna Museet and Kalmar konstmuseum, and exhibited at Moderna Museet (1978) and Millesgården (1996).
• In his later years in Norrtälje he painted a mural in Roslagens bokhandel and read his own poems there at monthly evenings.
• As a 20-year-old he lived in France, sponsored by gallery owners and professional gamblers; he bought his paint in the shop where Chagall had bought his. He exhibited with Ulf Lundell at Millesgården and with Yoko Ono in Kungsträdgården, and a painting of his hangs in Ljusets kyrka.
• He believed art “should speak to our feelings and be easy to love”, and stood up for circus and fairytale motifs against critics who called them kitsch.

Painting with Tanya

Tanya's favourite childhood memory is of standing beside him in front of an enormous canvas stretched across a living-room wall in Denmark: “There I stood with my dad in front of the easel, painting — and it is one of my favourite childhood memories.” In 2020 father and daughter began sketching and painting together, and held their first joint exhibition at Andrummet in Norrtälje in August 2020; they exhibited together again at Galleri Andrummet in November 2022. Read their conversation: Samtal på Hökens veranda.

His son Daniel remembered how he painted without pause: “sometimes you couldn't walk through the house, there were so many paintings everywhere.”

He died at home in Norrtälje on 18 February 2025, aged 77.

Sources

• “Samtal på Hökens veranda” — Mitt Roslagen, 25 November 2020
• Sven-Arne Hökenström — Swedish Wikipedia
• “Graffiti-konstnären Sven-Arne ’Höken’ Hökenström avliden” — SVT Nyheter, March 2025
• “Sven-Arne ’Höken’ Hökenström (1947–2025)” — Kulturnavet i Norrtälje, March 2025
• Sven-Arne Hökenström — Wikidata (Q133260246)