Press materials

The monumental changes in society that took place during this era, the impact of two world wars and the influences from European cities such as Paris and Berlin, all left their mark on art: in the depiction of landscapes that now bore the hallmarks of a new industrial age, the rapidly growing cities and the environments of the outer suburbs, intimate portrayals of everyday life, and representations of human emotions. Parallel with this, however, many artists turned their focus inwards, to Moderna Museet private inner worlds and imagination, and to motifs that bear witness to a longing for times now past.

Curator: Matilda Olof-Ors

The exhibition titel is inspired by Ragnar Sandberg’s painting “Rosa segel” (Pink Sails) from 1934.
“Pink Sails – Swedish Modernism in the Moderna Museet collection” is the second in a new series of thematic exhibitions of the Moderna Museet collection. These presentations explore different narratives in art history, replacing the previous chronological format.

Pressrelease Monica Sjöö The Great Cosmic Mother

If you like to recieve the exhibition catalogue (PDF) via e-mail, please contact us at: press@modernamuseet.se

Curators: Jo Widoff, Moderna Museet and Amy Budd, Modern Art Oxford

“Monica Sjöö – The Great Cosmic Mother” is organized in partnership with Modern Art Oxford, where it will be on view 18 November 2023–25 February 2024.

Exhibitions in Berlin, Frankfurt, and Kiel have attracted broad audiences eager to explore this long-forgotten artist and have established a place for her in the history of twentieth-century art. However, these shows focused primarily on Laserstein’s work from the 1920s to the beginning of the 1930s—the period before she was forced to leave Germany and emigrated to Sweden. “A Divided Life” focuses as much on the multifaceted works she created in exile in Sweden as it does on those she made before leaving Germany.

Lotte Laserstein’s career as an artist began in Berlin in the 1920s. After graduating from the Academy of Arts there in 1927—as one of the first women to earn a degree—she quickly succeeded in making a name for herself in the city’s art scene. Laserstein captured the spirit of an era in scenes from her studio and portraits of cosmopolitan, emancipated women. At first glance, her work appears to share some of the characteristics of the movement known as the New Objectivity. But Laserstein did not exaggerate or caricature—instead, her work reveals an intimate realism that weaves together painting tradition with contemporary themes. The paintings she executed in Berlin, in which she depicts her life as an artist and shows us the many sides of the Weimar Republic’s modern “new woman,” are surprisingly current even today, particularly in light of the ongoing discussions around gender identity and queerness.

The success predicted for Lotte Laserstein and ascribed to her by German art critics in the 1920s ended abruptly in 1933 when the Nazis seized power. As a Jew, Laserstein was increasingly excluded from the public art world. Thanks to an invitation to show her work at the Galerie Moderne in Stockholm in 1937, she was able to get out of Germany with some of her most important works and come to Sweden, where she would spend the greater part of her working life. In Sweden, Laserstein was able to build a new life for herself as a portrait and landscape painter.

“For five decades, Laserstein produced an extremely comprehensive, thematic, and stylistically multifaceted collection of works that has only partially come to light in earlier shows,” say the exhibition’s curators, Iris Müller-Westermann and Anna-Carola Krausse.
“In our exhibition, we ascribe to this period of Laserstein’s life and work the same status as the time she lived in Berlin. Through her representational commissioned portraits, expressive self-portraits, moving depictions of other emigrants, and landscapes and urban scenes, it is possible to discern what living in exile was like. Laserstein’s Swedish work raises questions about what it means to lose one’s own cultural and social milieu and be forced to establish roots in a new society. Against the backdrop of today’s global migration patterns, the works Laserstein created while in exile in Sweden provide an important contribution to the ongoing dialogue around these issues.”

Although Laserstein was able to complete a great many important portraits on commission—for clients that included well-known aristocrats, politicians, business leaders, and cultural figures—and although she was still able to make a living as an artist, her recognition in the Swedish art scene remained limited. It is likely that her unwavering commitment to realism during post-war decades dominated by abstraction played a role in preventing her from receiving a larger breakthrough in Sweden.

Lotte Laserstein described her life and her career with the words “My rescue to Sweden broke my life in two.” This division has shaped the structure of the exhibition. The first part is devoted to the artist’s time in Berlin, with key works that illuminate her artistic beginnings and early successes in the Weimar Republic. The second part features Laserstein’s years in Sweden.

“Lotte Laserstein: A Divided Life” will be on view at Moderna Museet Malmö from May 6 through October 1, 2023. The exhibition will then move on to Moderna Museet in Stockholm from November 11 through April 14, 2024.

Curators: Iris Müller-Westermann, formerly Museum Director of Moderna Museet Malmö and now Senior Curator at Moderna Museet in Stockholm and Anna-Carola Krausse, an art historian and Laserstein expert based in Berlin.

Support for this exhibition is provided by Mannheimer Swartling, the Barbro Osher Pro Suecia Foundation, and the Jacob Wallenberg Foundation. We thank also the Lotte Laserstein Exhibition Circle.

For more information, please contact: Alexandra Giertz, Communication Manager
mob: 0734-228739
press.malmo@modernamuseet.se

Press preview at both Moderna Museet Malmö and Malmö Konstmuseum on Thursday, 4 May

On 4 May, Moderna Museet and Malmö Konstmuseum are inviting members of the press to a preview for the two upcoming exhibitions. The press event begins at Moderna Museet with a preview of the exhibition “Lotte Laserstein: A Divided Life” and continues later at Malmö Konstmuseum with a preview of the exhibition “Tal R & Mamma Andersson – Around Hill”. Transportation between the museums will be offered to journalists who wish to attend both presentations.

At 10.00 – Press preview at Moderna Museet Malmö for the exhibition “Lotte Laserstein – A Divided Life” attended by curators Dr. Iris Müller-Westermann and Dr. Anna Carola Krausse and by Museum Director Elisabeth Millqvist.

At 11.30 – Transport to Malmö Art Museum.

At 12.00 – Press preview at Malmö Konstmuseum for the exhibition in the presence of the artists Karin Mamma Andersson, Tal R. Museum Director Kirse Junge-Stevnsborg, and curator Marcus Pompeius will be in attendance.

Applications for admission to the press preview must be submitted no later than 2 May to Alexandra Giertz at a.giertz@modernamuseet.se or Disa Torbjörnsdottir (Malmö Art Museum) at disa.torbjornsdottir@malmo.se.

Indicate whether you wish to attend both press previews or only one of them and whether you would like transportation from Moderna Museet Malmö to Malmö Konstmuseum. The press preview is for journalists or writers who have been assigned to report on the exhibitions. We request that you indicate in which newspaper or other media organization you write for.

In what is Anderson’s largest solo exhibition to date in Europe, visitors are treated to a narrative on the nature of time, space and existence. A representative selection of the artist’s works from the 1970s up to the present day is complemented with brand new, site-specific productions: conceptual art, performance, innovative musical instruments, compositions, stage shows, as well as activist art and political art. The exhibition serves as a forum for both physical materials and techniques – painting, sculpture, analogue photography, sound tapes and film strips – and new digital worlds, such as virtual reality.

Laurie Anderson, born in Glen Ellyn, a suburb of Chicago, in 1947 has Swedish ancestry on her father’s side. Her grandfather hailed from Dalsland.

Curator: Lena Essling

More pressimages and information will be available.

Biography Laurie Anderson

Exhibition leaflet

For Laurie Anderson’s book “All the Things I Lost in the Flood” (2017) in PDF, please contact us at: press@modernamuseet.se

Jimmy Robert
Asymmetrical Grammar
1.4 – 3.9 2023
Curator: Andreas Nilsson
New Gallery & Right Gallery (Floor 2)

Jimmy Robert’s work explores the political in observation, questioning established conceptions, and opens up for interpretation from multiple points of view. A recurring feature is how meaning is created in the relationship between place, body, and artwork, where all parts appear equally active. His work also poses questions about how a movement can be preserved and how it can be presented in an exhibition context.

– Jimmy Robert’s work makes visible, among other things, the interaction between the private and public body, and it raises questions about gaze and desire, says Andreas Nilsson, curator of the exhibition. Also central to his work are movement and presence as a concept, as we see manifested in the performance presented during the exhibition period.

A central work in the exhibition is the installation “Descendances du Nu” (2016). It includes objects, photographs, performances, sounds, and writing and is based on Marcel Duchamp’s painting “Nude Descending a Staircase” (1912). Robert’s work also ties in with artist colleagues such as Sturtevant and Sherrie Levine, who both have referred to Duchamp in their work. Further, the installation serves as a set for the performance that is part of the work.

Jimmy Robert raises questions in his art about representation, identity, and gender, often rooted in an art or museum context. The artist takes on these complex subjects through a formal language that is fragmented and open, infused with subtle humor, melancholy, and queerness. These works, in which the body in particular is used as a conceptual tool, are allowed to serve both as independent entities and as components of a wider historical network.

Jimmy Robert was born in 1975 in Guadeloupe. Currently he lives in Berlin, where he is a professor of sculpture and performance at the Universität der Künste. Robert has had recent solo exhibitions at institutions such as Künstlerhaus Bremen (2022), Museion in Bolzano (2021), and Nottingham Contemporary in Nottingham (2020). He has presented large-scale performances at the KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin (2019), Performa 17 in New York (2017), and the Centre d’Art Contemporain in the Synagogue de Delme, France (2016).

The exhibition at Moderna Museet Malmö also comprises a selection of works from Moderna Museet’s collection.

PLEASE CONTACT US FOR AN INDIVIDUAL PRESENTATION FROM THURSDAY, MARCH 30 ONWARDS.

Send an email to press.malmo@modernamuseet.se. Please state for which newspaper, magazine or other medium you will be reporting.

FOR HIGH-RESOLUTION PRESS IMAGES, PLEASE VISIT MODERNA MUSEET’S PRESS ROOM

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT: Alexandra Giertz, Communications Manager
mobile: +46 (0)734-228739
press.malmo@modernamuseet.se

The art market was red-hot, the alternative art scene rebelled, the fear of HIV and AIDS was rampant, and the Cold War was coming to an end. This pivotal point between the politicised 1970s and the artistically terser 1990s left its mark on the Moderna Museet collection.

Press release Sleepless Nights

Lars Englund
Under Construction
18.2 – 3.9 2023
Curator: Elisabeth Millqvist
Left Gallery (Floor 2)

Lars Englund’s art is characterized by exploration of materials and shapes and could be described as “work in progress.” Englund both returns to and constantly changes his expressions. He has collaborated with cement and rubber factories, bases his work on machine parts and industrial materials, changes scale from model to monumental, and finds inspiration in subways and Baroque architecture alike. This exhibition spans from paintings Englund made in the early 1950s that have rarely been shown to sculptures from the 2000s.

– Visitors will recognize the materials Englund uses from building facades and workshops. His choices draw our attention to our everyday surroundings, elevating the commonplace to the extraordinary, says Elisabeth Millqvist, Museum Director and curator of the exhibition.

This presentation combines sculptures from the Moderna Museet collection with works on loan, mainly from the artist. The focus of Englund’s work is revealed in titles that convey his interest in form, such as “Volume”, “Sphere”, and “Pars Pro Toto” – part of a whole. The sculptures, which often hang from the ceiling, interact with one another and challenge the surrounding space. There is no clear reference point for these works; instead, we are invited to move around and in relation to their abstract and geometric forms. The artworks establish a dialogue with the building’s industrial history as an electrical power plant, designed by John Smedberg and constructed in 1901, but also with its present form as a work of architecture adapted by Tham & Videgård to be a museum, with its distinctive perforated orange metal facade—a material to which Englund makes reference.

Lars Englund was born in 1933 in Stockholm, and now lives in Jonstorp, Scania County. Englund was celebrated with a large solo show at Moderna Museet in Stockholm in 2005. Solo shows in Scania County include Dunkers kulturhus in Helsingborg (2003), Lunds konsthall (2002) and Krapperups konsthall in Höganäs (1998). Over the years, he has also shown at acclaimed international exhibitions in Venice, Warsaw, New York, and most recently in Paris at the Centre Pompidou’s 2021 exhibition [Aerodream].

The exhibition is presented in close collaboration with Yvonne Möller.

A PRESS CONFERENCE WILL TAKE PLACE AT MODERNA MUSEET MALMÖ ON THURSDAY FEBRUARY 16 AT 10 AM IN THE PRESENCE OF ELISABETH MILLQVIST AND ADÈLE ESSLE ZEISS.

To participate, please send an email to press.malmo@modernamuseet.se. Please state for which newspaper, magazine or other medium you will be reporting.

For more press images or questions, please contact Alexandra Giertz, Communications Manager by mail.

Tel: +46 406857940

Mobil: +46 734228739

Adèle Essle Zeiss
Statolit
Installation and performance (performance dates to be communicated separately)
18.2 – 3.9 2023
Curator: Elisabeth Millqvist
Loading Dock

“Statolit” is an installation and performance for three dancers that will be performed several times throughout the exhibition period. “Statolit” is on view here as a counterpart to the exhibition on Lars Englund.

“Statolit” was first presented in 2018 at Galleri Mejan in Stockholm and is included in the collection of Moderna Museet. Adèle Essle Zeiss makes use of simple materials—three long wooden planks placed horizontally in the space, a sack of cement strapped to one end of each. At the other sits a dancer, whose body is balanced by the counterweight of the sack. Any little movement changes the elevation of the plank, setting it in motion. A documentation will complement the installation when the dancers are not present. Information on performance dates will be added.

– There are parallels between Essle Zeiss’s way of working with just a few everyday materials, which puts the focus on shifting movement, and Englund’s work. In one conversation with her, it came out that she had reached out to him regarding his sculptures. I’m looking forward to the meeting between these artists’ different expressions in the museum, says Elisabeth Millqvist, Museum Director and curator of the exhibition.

Adèle Essle Zeiss studied to be a dancer at the Royal Swedish Ballet School and has a master’s degree in fine art from the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm. “Statolit” was included in the 2022 exhibition “Swedish Acquisitions: Matches” at Moderna Museet in Stockholm. In 2021, Accelerator, a Stockholm University exhibition space, showed the most comprehensive presentation to date of her performance art, and her work has also been featured by MDT, Haninge Konsthall, the Ulvhälls Hällar art park, and in Denmark at Den Frie/Dansehallerne. In April and May, Adèle Essle Zeiss will also be presented, with a different artwork, at Lilith Performance Studio in Malmö.

A PRESS CONFERENCE WILL TAKE PLACE AT MODERNA MUSEET MALMÖ ON THURSDAY FEBRUARY 16 AT 10 AM IN THE PRESENCE OF ELISABETH MILLQVIST AND ADÈLE ESSLE ZEISS.

To participate, please send an email to press.malmo@modernamuseet.se. Please state for which newspaper, magazine or other medium you will be reporting.

For more press images or questions, please contact via e-mail Alexandra Giertz, Communications Manager.

Tel: +46 406857940

Mobil: +46 734228739

Moderna Museet Exhibition programme 2023 Stockholm Malmö

Together, these presentations highlight art from the 20th century to today, reflecting the whole range of the collection. Classics, favourites and new acquisitions are the first thing visitors will see in the galleries, and in the Study Gallery downstairs everyone can choose what to see and request works from the collection.

To the press release Even more from the Moderna Museet Collection on display

At Wanås Konst, Millqvist has worked with site-specific international contemporary art. Under Millqvist’s leadership, new works of art have been added to the sculpture park by artists such as Igshaan Adams, Nathalie Djurberg & Hans Berg, William Forsythe, Yoko Ono, and Rana Begum. The artistic program has also been expanded to include dance and performance. In addition to her extensive experience in the art world, Millqvist has a strong academic background in art history and leadership. She has been sharing the role as Museum Director at Wanås Konst with Mattias Givell.

Photo: Åsa Lundén/Moderna Museet

Here you can find art, photography, architecture and design related products as well as postcards, posters, catalogues and over 3000 book titles. You can also find the Moderna Museet’s catalogues, literature and products relating to or specially produced for our exhibitions. We have a wide selection of designer products, and unique products found only at Moderna Museet.

All proceeds from the shop contributes directly to the Moderna Museet and its programs.

Here you will find Nordic flavours mixed with influences from all over the world. Soups, salads and sandwiches are always available, along with desserts and fresh products from our own bakery. Reduced prices for children under 13. For a more peaceful setting and a garden with evening sun in the summer, visit Café Blom in ArkDes, and if you want a quick coffee, there’s Kaffebaren by the main entrance.

Read more about the buildings here.

Read more about the buildings here.