Carl Folke Sahlin, Miami, Seminole Women, watercolor, 18 1/2 by 18 1/2 inches, monogramed lower left and dated, Miami, 1946.
Carl Folke Sahlin had a long career as an illustrator and advertising executive in New York and Chicago. In 1940 he retired, moved to Miami, and began painting for enjoyment. He was initiated into Miami’s Blue Dome Fellowship in 1942. Sahlin specialized in painting the Indians of Mexico, Panama and the Navaho and Zunis of New Mexico and Arizona. The Miami Herald, December 3, 1944, “Carl Sahlin is one of those rare, relaxed artists who do things for fun. He specializes in Latin-American Indian subjects because they fascinate him. He journeys by the hard and slow routes because he is in no hurry and wants to participate in the intimate doings of the people he paints. That his work should turn out to have international significance he never anticipated when he began it about four years ago, and in the hang-up Washington show, he finds an excitement rather than a reward. Sahlin has wandered thoroughly through every country of South and Central America, and most of the islands of this hemisphere. He has painted Indians in all their hundreds of types and eccentricities, their occupations, homes, diversions, and dance in all their thousand colorful variations. Since this last trip he can draw you a map offhand of any Central American country with its cities and villages, lakes and volcanoes, and the little roads he’s slogged through on his tribal visits. He makes sketches on the spot; then finishes all paintings before leaving the region.” At the 19th Annual Miami Woman’s Club Breakfast, Sahlin was honored as “Artist of the Day” and received the annual Myrtle Taylor Bradford gold medal award, presented by the Woman’s Club for “outstanding contributions in the cultural life of the area, of the United States, and of the world.” A year later, in 1946 the Herald, commenting on his one man at Burdine’s noted, “The huge body of his work, all of it in the vividness colors and done with the greatest attention to correctness of detail, exists as an artistic witness to the lives of hitherto little-known peoples…” Sahlin’s work was exhibited at the Smithsonian and the Corcoran Galleries in Washington, D.C. and the National Galleries of Stockholm and Gothenburg, Sweden. Born: Sweden. Education: Art Students League, N.Y.C. Membership: Miami Art League, president, 1946-1949; Blue Dome Fellowship, director, 1947, president, 1951; Florida Federation of Art; American Watercolor Society, N.Y.C.; National Arts Club of New York; Associated Artists of Miami; American Artists Professional League. Exhibits: Blue Dome Fellowship, Miami, December 1942; Associate Artists, Biscayne Blvd. August 1943, South American sketches; Miami Woman’s Club 16th Annual, February 1944, Waiting for the Train, Cactus Forest in the Cordilleras, Indian Fiesta de Peru; Society of The Four Arts, 7th Annual Members Show, January 1945; Palm Beach Art League, March 1945, South American Indians; Florida Federation of Art, 19th Annual Exhibition, December 7, 1945, Miami Beach, Aspanes of Chiche-Guatemala, Fiesta on the Peeno Aero-Peru; National Gallery, Washington, D.C. 150 watercolors of South America, January 1945; Miami Junior League Exhibit at Burdines, March 1945, Indian studies and Manous Harbor; Palm Beach Art League 27th Annual, Norton Gallery, March 1945; Washington Art Galleries, Miami Beach, November, 1945, South American Indians; Miami Art League, Burdine’s Department Store, November 1945; Pan American League, at Burdine’s art department, April 1946, 40 watercolors; Royal Poinciana festival, Miami Bayfront Park, June 1946, Seminoles; Corcoran Gallery, Washington, D. C., one man show, September 1946; Washington Art Galleries, Miami Beach, November 1946; Miami Art League Annual, Miami Beach Art Center, November 1946, People of Lake Atitlan; Burdine’s Art Department, Miami, Florida, 1946; Miami Woman’s Club 19th Annual, February 18, 1947, blue ribbon for San Pedro La Laguna; Blue Dome Fellowship, first exhibit after World War II, in cooperation with Miami Woman’s Club, Miami Art League, Burdine’s, February 1947; Miami Woman’s Club Annual, February 1948, Central and South American Indian watercolors; Blue Dome Fellowship, at Housekeeper’s Clubhouse, 2985 Bayshore Drive, January-February, 1948; Junior League of Miami, 1st Art Exhibit, March 1948; Washington Art Galleries, Miami Beach, November 1948; Miami Art League, Miami Beach Art Center, November 1948, merit award, watercolor, Samba Ha Bahia; Miami Art League, 1st Downtown Gallery Exhibit, Florida Power and Light Co., Ingraham Building, January 1949; Blue Dome Fellowship Annual, Miami Beach Art Center, January-February 1949, best figure study in any medium, Bolero; American Artists Professional League, Citation of Honor, 1949; Miami Woman’s Club, Annual Artists and Writers Breakfast, February 1950, “gay souvenirs of Europe”; Blue Dome Fellowship at Miami Beach Art Center, April 1950, first prize, watercolor landscape, A Formal Introduction; American Artist’s Professional League, American Art Week Exhibit, Burdine’s, Miami, November 1950, best overall painting; Blue Dome Fellowship Annual, Miami Beach Art Center, March 1951; Miami Beach Art Center, Latin American subjects, April 1951; Royal Poinciana Art Exhibit at Burdine’s, June 1951, Sprit of the Festival; Miami Art League, Miami Beach Art Center, November 1951, watercolors, Pig Market and Cantina; Housekeeper’s Club, Coconut Grove, January 1952, Carnevalcipa; Miami Woman’s Club Artists and Writers Breakfast, 24th Annual February 19, 1952, Fiesta de Huánuco and Church in La Paz; Miami Boat Show, Dinner Key Auditorium, February 1952; Evansville College, Evansville, Indiana, McCurdy Alumni Union, March 1952, exhibit of Florida watercolors by Miami Art League, Natives of South America and Beggars at St. Thomas Cathedral; Florida International Art Exhibit, Florida Southern College, Lakeland, 1952, honorable mention; Miami Art League, Miami Beach Art Center, October 1952, Cock Fight; Lowe Art Gallery, 1st Membership Show, University of Miami, October-November 1952, Mayas; Lowe Art Gallery, University of Miami, January 1953, watercolors of the Caribbean; Miami Women’s Club, Artists and Writers Breakfast, February 1953, Hula at Crandon; American Artists Professional League, Miami Chapter, at Washington Art Galleries, November 1953, Indian subjects; Miami Women’s Club, Artists and Writers Breakfast, February 1953, four watercolors including, Hula at Crandon; Miami Boat Show Art Exhibit, Dinner Key auditorium, February 1953; Blue Dome Fellowship, Miami Beach Art Center, March 1953, American Rhythms; Washington Art Galleries, April 1953, as part of Pan-American Painting Exhibition, La Concha (for Costa Rica), Parque Concordia (for Honduras), La Pollera, (for Panama) and Alcaldes of Pisac (for Peru); Miami Woman’s Club, 26th Annual Artists and Writers Breakfast, February 16, 1954, Huiano, Sevillanas and Caboclino Dance; Washington Art Galleries, Pan-American Week, Miami Beach, April 1954; Blue Dome Fellowship, Miami Beach Art Center, March 1954, Portrait of Alfred Musella and Bahamas; American Artists Professional League, Miami Chapter at Washington Art Gallery, November 1955, Casbah Barber and best figure, Balinese Dance Play; Miami Art League, Winter Annual, December 1955, Cantonese Women Laborers; Indians of 21 Nations, at the McAllister Hotel, September 1957, a one man exhibit of watercolors, including, Seminole Women; American Artists Professional League at Washington Art Galleries, Miami Beach, November 1957, Temuco and blue ribbon, Rio; Miami Woman’s Club Artists and Writers Breakfast, February 20, 1958, blue ribbon in watercolor; American Artists Professional League at Coconut Grove Playhouse Gallery, March 1960, 1st prize in oil for Seminoles; American Artists Professional League, Coconut Grove Playhouse Gallery, February 1961, watercolors from trip to Hong Kong and the East; Blue Dome Members’ exhibit, Miami Beach Art Center, April 1962; National Arts Club, N.Y.C.; Galerie Moderne, Stockholm, Sweden; The Smithsonian, Washington, D.C.; Washington Art Galleries, Miami Beach, one man show; Swedish American Museum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Directory: Listed in the Miami City Directory in 1947 as an artist with a studio in 2965 S.W. 36th Street.
Carl Folke Sahlin, Miami, oil on canvas, Flamingoes, 31 3/8 by 26 3/8 inches, monogramed lower left and dated, 1942.
