Meet Niklas, the artist behind the Nobel Prize portraits
What started out as a solution to a problem, turned into an art thanks to Niklas Elmehed. The journey was simple and yet, glorious
Niklas Elmehed is one of the few people who gets the inside scoop on the Nobel Prize winners before the big reveal every year, despite not being a judge.
The world eagerly awaits the annual Nobel Prize announcements as October approaches. And with it, Niklas becomes busy adding his artistic flair to these prestigious accolades. Since 2014, his gold-leafed portraits have become synonymous with these esteemed awards, adorning the pages of magazines, newspapers, and lighting up social media.
Before 2012, announcing the new Nobel laureates each year presented a challenge, as the team struggled to find high-quality photographs. Faced with this dilemma, Niklas took matters into his own hands.
"I picked up a marker and sketched the laureates, and it turned out to be a good solution."
Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel
In the first two years, his drawings were quite basic. Yet they gained recognition in the media. Eventually, the company decided to formalise this concept and asked Niklas to create a distinctive graphical portrait. This would become a signature feature of the Nobel Prize. Thus, the first sketch with black borders, which we see today, was introduced in 2014.
"When I started this, it was just a solution to me. As these sketches gained international attention and media outlets started using them, it felt amazing," said this Swedish artist.
Niklas's educational background, which includes two master's degrees from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology and the Royal Institute of Arts, reinforced his unique ability to connect science and art. This is why he was recruited in 2012 when the company was looking for an art director.
"Because of my portfolio and passion for both science and art, they hired me as the art director of Nobel Media. It was owned by the Nobel Foundation and is responsible for all visual content during the announcements."
The company is now known as the Nobel Prize Outreach.
Many people know about the use of gold in his portraits, but he clarified that it's not actual gold, but a gold-colored metal.
The transition from the traditional blue and yellow to gold came about in 2014 when the Nobel organisation revamped its visual identity.
"Therefore, I was asked to redevelop my style to incorporate gold, the prominent colour associated with the Nobel Prize now," said the artist.
"I experimented with various gold paints and settled on a super-thin metal foil that could be affixed to the painting with a special glue. Along with black outlines on a white background, I believe the portraits have a powerful impact," he explained.
Creating these portraits doesn't require an extensive amount of time. "I am pretty fast," he mentioned. He shared that featuring these brilliant minds on his canvas typically takes a few hours for each, not days.
Although he does possess inside knowledge, he can't reveal exactly when he gains access to this information due to confidentiality.
"As you know, the portrait accompanies the Nobel Prize announcement, so I obviously know in advance who it is going to be," Niklas said.
Creating Nobel Prize portraits is just one aspect of his artistic endeavours. The rest of the year, he is actively involved in diverse projects, exploring various art forms. These projects encompass pop culture, playful interpretations of comic characters and more.
When asked about the life of artists in Sweden, he noted, "it's the same all around the world; it's tough to make a living as an artist. There are many great artists, but only a few can make a living from it."
He feels fortunate for the opportunity to serve as the art director for the Nobel Prize Outreach.
You might be wondering what happens to the original portraits in the end. "When the announcements are finished, I mount all of them on a Golden wall at the headquarters of Nobel Prize Outreach and Nobel Foundation. In fact, I did it today," the artist revealed on Wednesday.
As his fame continues to rise, he has received invitations from art schools to conduct workshops and participate in various events. "I don't formally teach, but who knows, maybe in the future, I can do that," he said with a grin.
These days, Niklas is inundated with requests from people asking him to create their portraits. He accommodates some of these requests while having to decline others. Interestingly, he hasn't created his own portrait in his signature style yet.
As our conversation comes to an end, he extends warm regards to TBS' readers: "Please convey my best wishes to your readers."
