"Girls Playing Ballgames"
vase, Orrefors, 1919. Edward Hald. Nationalmuseum
Stockholm.
Utopia and
Reality:
NEW YORK CITY - The first half of the Twentieth Century is
identified with youth, progress, innovation, new artistic ways to
view and understand a changing world and modernity. In Sweden
this resulted in innovations such as the spheric ball bearing,
new architecture at the Vällingby Center, the skyscapes at
Hötorget, and Gunnar and Alva Myrdal's ideals on social welfare
politics. All were expressions of their time and have become
world-renowned classics.
The Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts,
Design and Culture presents a broad survey of Swedish art and
culture from the first half of the Twentieth Century with the
exhibition, "Utopia & Reality: Modernity in Sweden,
1900-1960."
Organized by the Moderna Museet, Stockholm, the exhibition is on
view at the Bard Graduate Center through June 16. An
accompanying, fully illustrated catalog makes an important
contribution to English-language scholarship concerning the
Swedish perspective on modernism and the rich diversity of
modernist art, architecture and design produced in Sweden during
this period.
"Utopia & Reality: Modernity in Sweden, 1900-1960" traces the
origins of modernism in Sweden and explores its cultural and
political contexts. It deals with the aesthetics of the Twentieth
Century, but also with society during the modernist era in
Sweden.
SFK ball bearing, Sven Wingquist, 1907. Moderna Museet.
The full range of artistic expression is covered, from
architectural drawings and models to painting, sculpture, graphic
and industrial design, crafts, photography and film. The
exhibition marks the first time that these approximately 200
works in different media have been shown together, providing a
comprehensive portrait of how modernity was expressed in Sweden
from the turn of the century to the late 1950s.
Modernism in Sweden
The Twentieth Century was characterized by an awareness of the
concept of "modern" and the constant search for the new. New
technologies demanded new ideologies and models of social and
political organization, which in turn stimulated new forms of
architecture, design, photography, film and other art to reflect
and comment on a rapidly changing world.
In Sweden, artists were influenced by major figures on the
Continent and by the activity in avant-garde centers such as
Berlin and Paris. Exhibitions in Gothenburg, Malmö and the
Liljevalch Konstall in Stockholm in the first three decades of
the Twentieth Century exposed Swedish artists to works by
Kandinsky, Léger, Picasso, Braque, Schiele and Matisse, among
many others, and were forums for international modernism.
Swedish artists incorporated aspects of the new art movements
into a distinctly Swedish modernity, combining the national with
the international and adapting their utopian ideals to the
reality of everyday life. As a comprehensive survey of the
Swedish response to modernism, the exhibition represents both
those artists who embrace modernism as an emblem and a means of
social progress and those who reject the rationalistic ideals of
the movement and its unceasing emphasis on the new.
Modernism coincided with a need for new social and political
solutions. Modernist architecture gave the movement a strong
popular appeal, and the government was to realize many of
modernism's most radical ideas. The Swedes embraced the
experiments of Adolf Loos in Austria, Le Corbusier and the
Bauhaus architects, among others, welcoming the new architecture
as a solution to everyday social issues in Sweden.
Whereas in other countries modernist architecture typically was
the style employed for more exclusive building projects, in
Sweden the so-called functionalist style was used for public
schools, housing, baths and civic offices, and thus came to be
identified strongly with the welfare state and the social
democracy movement.
Other utopian architectural projects, such as Sven Markelius's
Collective House (Stockholm, 1935) and the apartment hotels that
followed were intended as solutions to the problems faced by
working women with families. The 1930s utopia of modern man in
modern society led to the postwar development of the welfare
state.
The provision of housing was one of the most important tasks, and
architects were charged with designing the framework of the new
Folkhem -- the "people's home." The radical transition from
scarcity to economic security, from countryside to neighborhood
centers, from craft to industry, won international acclaim.
In the arts and crafts, under the leadership of textile designer
Elsa Gullberg and the Swedish Society of Crafts and Design,
artists and manufacturers began to collaborate in an effort to
increase the aesthetic quality of industrial products, placing a
decidedly national stamp on goods mass-produced for the
international market.
Objects for everyday use, such as Bruno Mathsson's bentwood
furniture, also reflected this climate of social experimentation.
Consumer goods were designed to be functional and widely
affordable but also aesthetically pleasing, exemplifying the
democratic notion in Sweden that everyone was entitled to beauty
in daily life.
"Swedish Modernism" as a concept was launched at the New York
World's Fair in 1939, with a persuasive program that placed the
potential of design in a broader context. The blond Swedish style
evoked an enthusiastic response from international audiences, a
response still echoed in the contemporary world of design.
Young Swedish photographers such as Arne Wahlberg imported to
Sweden the new, objective style they had learned in Germany, and
frequently put their talents to work for Swedish industry, again
imbuing industry with a national aesthetic. The exhibition
focuses on the photographers who captured the progress of modern
society in their pictures of sport, new technology, architecture
and film stars, but also on those who portrayed a society that
would soon belong to history, a society caught between rural
tradition and modern urban living.
Working chair, Bruno Mathsson, 1934. Nationalmuseum Stockholm.
By the 1960s, Sweden saw a new generation of architects, artists
and designers rebel against the social, cultural and political
confines of a modernist program. Scandinavian style -- the
prevailing identity of the 1950s characterized by elegant,
harmonious proportions and an almost perfectionist treatment of
material -- was simultaneously called into question. The final
part of the exhibition illustrates a number of the interactions
between artistic disciplines that took place after World War II.
These interactions, together with examples of work by pioneers in
Swedish industrial design, re-create the dynamic atmosphere of
the 1950s.
The Exhibition
"Utopia & Reality: Modernity in Sweden, 1900-1960" includes
200 classic works of Swedish modernism, including avant-garde
painting ranging from expressionism, abstraction and occultism to
Gösta Adrian-Nilsson's futurist-expressionist paintings;
paintings by Matisse's pupils Isaac Grünewald and Sigrid Hjertén;
premodern paintings by August Strindberg and Hilma af Klint;
furniture designs by Erik Gunnar Asplund, Bruno Mathsson, and
Josef Frank; Viking Eggeling's abstract film Diagonal
Symphony (1924); Albin Amelin's anti-Nazi prints and
paintings; glass by Edward Hald; graphic design by Anders Beckman
and Olle Eksell; architectural drawings by Asplund and Sigurd
Lewerentz; textiles designed by Ingegerd Torhamm and Astrid
Sampe; and industrial designs by Sixten Sason and Sigvard
Bernadotte.
The exhibition sheds light on the perspective of the artists --
the Bohemians, the designers in the service of society, art
engineers, architects, social planners and radical visionaries.
The exhibition also presents the work of a large number of women
artists, illuminating their understanding of the art of the new
era and prompting a discussion about the situation of women in
general.
"Utopia & Reality: Modernity in Sweden, 1900-1960" is curated
by Cecilia Widenheim of the Moderna Museet, Stockholm, in
collaboration with Eva Rudberg, Arkitekturmuseet, and Cilla
Robach, Nationalmuseum Stockholm.
The Bard Graduate Center has complemented its presentation of the
exhibition with a range of educational programs including
lectures, film screenings, tours and special programs for
children, families and senior citizens.
The Bard Graduate Center is at 18 West 86th Street. For
information, 212-501-3000.
