Gustav Waldemar Sjölander Johnson[1] (January 6, 1908 – March 18, 1988) was a Swedish painter, printmaker and sculptor, who developed most of his career in Mexico.

[3][4] His visits to Mexico impressed him and by the end of the 1930s he decided to immigrate to the country, but World War II delayed his plans.

During this war, he became an officer in a cavalry regiment along Sweden's border with Finland, studying Spanish from an old grammar book in his free time.

He was attracted to Mexico as a kind of "tropical paradise" relatively unaffected by the vices of civilization and also free from the long winters of Sweden.

[3][4] Eager to explore his new home, the traveled the country, to Mexico City, Guadalajara, Tehuantepec, Juchitán and San Blas for two years, creating more than 200 paintings and many more drawings.

[3] After arriving in Mexico, Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco helped the artist get his first individual exhibition in Mexico with the then Museo Nacional de Artes Plásticas of the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes in 1948, followed by another in 1950, where his work received favorable reviews.

[3] Fernando Gamboa wrote that "His autonomy lies in his color, in the rich hues that never shatter the surface of the painting; the balance and originality of his sculptures reveal a unique resolution of form and style.

[4] A large number of his paintings, reliefs and engraving relate to man and landscape, with only a few portraits such as one of his wife, Aurora, in 1952.

His early work was more figurative, showing influence from Edvard Munch (who he met in Oslo), Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Pierre Bonnard and northern European Expressionism, due to his formal training.