SPECTACULAR TIMES

Artists broke free not only from the confines of the canvas and frame and the sculptural plinth but moved beyond the exhibition space, incorporating live and dead animals, mass-produced objects, advertising, newspaper cuttings, trash and rubbish in their works.

French neo-realists combined found objects in “assemblages” or – as in the case of Jean Tinguely – assembled scrap iron into self-destructing machines with human attributes. Artists such as Andy Warhol and Marie-Louise Ekman sought inspiration in different ways in the everyday life that was increasingly permeated with a flow of media images and the emerging consumer society. Here, a serving of fish quenelles in lobster sauce is presented as a pink, silky textile appliqué, while multiplied portraits of Marilyn Monroe reflect the mass-distributed commodification of lifestyles and ideals.

The 1960s were an age of shiny, polished surfaces, large cars and Hollywood glamour, but also of arms race, fast food and the start of a numbing standardisation. While Öyvind Falhström outlines the game rules of the new world, artists such as Lena Svedberg and Lena Cronquist tantalisingly reveal the darker side of consumerism – alienation, isolation, anxiety.

Curators: Joa Ljungberg and Magnus Jensner