Carl Johan De Geer

{{Short description|Swedish artist, writer, and musician}}

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Baron Carl Johan Louis De Geer af Finspång (born 13 July 1938) is a Swedish artist, writer, musician and friherre (baron) of the De Geer noble family.

De Geer was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He grew up in a castle in Skåne, in southern Sweden.{{Cite news |last=Rydell |first=Malena |date=2008-09-16 |title=Med passion för adliga kufar |language=sv |work=Dagens Nyheter |url=http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=1353&a=828833 |access-date=2008-11-18}}{{dead link|date=April 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}} He broke with his bourgeois background and became a leftist artist, and studied at Konstfack, University College of Art, Crafts and Design in Stockholm. He also exposed his grandmother's Nazi sympathies in a film called {{Lang|sv|Mormor, Hitler och jag}} ("Grandmother, Hitler and I").

Most radical and provoking at that time was his 1967 poster of a burning Swedish flag with the words {{Lang|sv|KUKEN}} ('COCK') and "{{Lang|sv|Skända flaggan}}" (Desecrate the flag) written on it. The poster was shown in an art gallery, but was immediately confiscated by the police.{{Cite book |last=Glover |first=Nikolas |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/928768776 |title=Histories of public diplomacy and nation branding in the Nordic and Baltic countries : representing the periphery |date=2015 |others=Louis Clerc, Nikolas Glover, Paul Thomas Jordan |isbn=978-90-04-30549-6 |location=Leiden |chapter=A Total Image Deconstructed: The Corporate Analogy and the Legitimacy of Promoting Sweden Abroad in the 1960s |oclc=928768776}} During the late 1960s he was among the contributors of a satirical magazine, Puss, in Stockholm.{{cite web|title=Puss 1968–1973|url=http://tidskrift.nu/artikel.php?Id=4683|website=tidskrift.nu|access-date=6 September 2022|language=sv}} De Geer has written a number of books and was also a member of the Swedish radical prog band Blå Tåget.{{Cite book |last=Högman |first=Åke |title=Följ med in i Carl Johan De Geer |publisher=Telegram Förlag |year=2008 |isbn=9789174237825 |language=sv}} He has been married to the artist Marianne Lindberg de Geer since 1987.

He was awarded the Illis quorum by the Swedish government in 2017.{{Cite web |date=2017-10-19 |title=Carl Johan De Geer, Livia Fränkel och Britta Marakatt-Labba tilldelas regeringens belöningsmedalj Illis quorum meruere labores |url=https://www.regeringen.se/pressmeddelanden/2017/10/carl-johan-de-geer-livia-frankel-och-britta-marakatt-labba-tilldelas-regeringens-beloningsmedalj-illis-quorum-meruere-labores/ |access-date=2022-05-31 |website=Regeringskansliet |language=sv}}