We know Stefan Johansson as the Swedish racing driver. He was a fixture of Formula 1 throughout the 1980s and of CART during the 1990s, alongside regular Le Mans appearances from 1983 to 2012 – including an overall win in 1997 in the Porsche WSC-95. From there he went on to run an Indy Lights team and to manage several drivers.
However, he has also become a successful artist, not just in the niche motoring scene but in the wider art world. We sat down with him to talk about how it came about.
“I always had a pretty strong interest in aesthetics and design from a young age,” he says. “When I began making some money in racing, I started collecting pieces of art here and there on my travels and through friends in the art world. I started to build this small collection of watches and things like that, but it was definitely Elio’s death that triggered me to do something personal.”
This was his friend and fellow F1 racer Elio de Angelis, who died in May 1986 while testing at Paul Ricard. His death deeply affected Stefan.
“I had never thought of doing anything myself to that point, but it prompted me to go and get some canvas and some paint because I wanted to do something in his memory. It was like a bolt of lightning hit me. It became sort of a therapy for me, between races just to get my mind away from the pressure and the intensity of F1.
“I had no interest whatsoever in drawing or anything like that until that moment. When I started getting into it, I sort of taught myself how
to paint. I didn’t know at the time, but I embarked on the most difficult subject – I started doing hands in different gestures. I now know they are the hardest thing to paint. Nothing like getting off to a bad start.”
He continues: “Anyway, I had a few artist friends who taught me the basics, such as mixing colours. Then the one main thing that they did teach me – which is the hardest part for an artist to get to other than having the idea in the first place – is to find your own style, something that is uniquely yours. It took me 30 years to get to that point.”
The style that Stefan initially found was thoughtful and evocative text over portraits. This then led onto abstract paintings inspired
by corners of Formula 1 circuits, giving an emotional impression of speed. Now, he has developed a pointillism style, often including cars in the paintings – which he initially didn’t want to do.
“It felt a bit too close to home,” he says. “I don’t want to be one of thousands of really brilliant artists that paint cars. But then I bought a book on pointillism to read on the aeroplane, and I thought it could be cool if I could incorporate this into super-high technology – to try to bring out the energy and the intensity of the racing power in that format.
“It’s actually worked well. People like it and they buy a lot of my art – and now I’m super busy.”
See Stefan’s artwork and watch designs at www.stefanjohansson.art or view them when he’s a guest speaker at our Wilton House Concours des Légendes on June 19-21.
