Home > Work > Swedish Art History : A Selection of Introductory Texts

Swedish Art History : A Selection of Introductory Texts QUOTES

Swedish Art History : A Selection of Introductory Texts QUOTES

1 " Most visibly and politically effectual were the twelve large-scale photographs by Elisabeth Ohlson Wallin (b. 1961) forming the exhibition Ecce Homo (1998). The photographs depict classical situations in the life of Christ, but they are staged in contemporary settings with obviously gay and lesbian models – naked, in leather gear, transvestites, HIV-positive, etc... "

― , Swedish Art History : A Selection of Introductory Texts

2 " National Romanticism that the painters from the Artists’ Union created and that became known as a Swedish national style was mainly depicting the Swedish landscape with its pines and firs, preferably with a moody lighting that later came to be known as the ‘Northern light’. "

― , Swedish Art History : A Selection of Introductory Texts

3 " Midsummer Dance (Midsommardans) by Anders Zorn is a prime example of how Swedish painters expressed their idea of Sweden, its traditions and its characteristic light conditions in the summer – the painting shows a dancing scene in the Swedish countryside in Dalecarlia in which couples clad in folk costumes twirl around the meadow in the wistful twilight of the early dawning sun in the midsummer night. "

― , Swedish Art History : A Selection of Introductory Texts

4 " In The New Swedish Art from 1923, a publication that attempts to describe contemporary currents in Swedish art labelled as ‘modern’, the modern artist is imagined as standing freer than during the 19th century: ‘He no longer wishes merely to replicate, but to create. He does no longer strive for optical illusion, but for artistic synthesis’. This seems true if comparing the techniques of a so-called modern artist with the academic painting principles of the 19th century. "

― , Swedish Art History : A Selection of Introductory Texts

5 " ... This style of interior design that developed during the 1940s and 1950s has been understood as a specifically Swedish form of modernism, later called ‘Swedish Modern’, and clearly associated with the broader concept of ‘Scandinavian Design "

― , Swedish Art History : A Selection of Introductory Texts

6 " Contemporary historians have shown how extensive the sterilization project was in Sweden and that it was officially sanctioned. Sweden was also one of the pioneering countries when it came to racial biology with a State Institute of Racial Biology founded already in 1922 in Uppsala. These few examples testify to a complex biopolitical scenography that goes against the myth of Sweden as a progressive, cosmopolitan, and ‘neutral’ country. "

― , Swedish Art History : A Selection of Introductory Texts

7 " From Town Plan to Cutlery (Från stadsplan till matbestick) was the evocative title of a Swedish exhibition held in Zürich in 1949. It can be viewed as a symbol of the 1950’s dream of being able to design everything in society and in everyday life – down to the smallest detail. "

― , Swedish Art History : A Selection of Introductory Texts

8 " Anna Odell... reconstructed her own psychological breakdown back in 1995 at a central bridge in Stockholm, complete with the intervention of unknowing police and healthcare personnel, filmed it, and showed the resulting film as a work of art... Odell’s purpose was to show how our society handles mental health issues, but the debate was mostly focused on her wasting hospital resources. Odell was fined 2500 SEK, but this got her career off to a great start... "

― , Swedish Art History : A Selection of Introductory Texts

9 " ... the anarcho-feminist artist Monica Sjöö (1938–2005) caused a scandal with her painting God Giving Birth in which God was depicted as a black woman giving birth. "

― , Swedish Art History : A Selection of Introductory Texts

10 " ... the goal was not only to study the layout of apartments and interiors, but also to educate people in how to furnish their apartments in a functional way with high-quality furniture. "

― , Swedish Art History : A Selection of Introductory Texts