The Fantastic and Horrific  

THE FANTASTIC AND HORRIFIC

MARIA PRYMACHENKO AND WORKS FROM THE MODERNA MUSEET COLLECTION

21 September 2024 – 30 March 2025
The exhibition is on show in the galleries on level 2
Curator: Elisabeth Millqvist, director of Moderna Museet Malmö

Participating artists: Alexander Calder, Marc Chagall, Lena Cronqvist, Lourdes Fernandez, Susanna Marcus Jablonski, Asger Jorn, Runo Lagomarsino, Lou Laurin-Lam, Egon Möller-Nielsen, Amelia Peláez del Casal, Pablo Picasso, Lars Pirak, Niki de Saint Phalle, Maria Prymachenko, Max Walter Swanberg, Adja Yunkers.

Welcome to a press preview on 19 September at 09.30. The preview is arranged in collaboration with Malmö Konsthall, which is opening the exhibition “Life as Cloth” with Lenke Rothman.

The nature around her, everyday life and celebrations, fairy tales and folk songs are part of Maria Prymachenko’s painted world, expressed in pictures and poetic titles that give an expanded meaning. The artist exhibited extensively and started an informal school. During Prymachenko’s lifetime, folk art was encouraged and used for various political purposes. After gaining attention and receiving an invitation to the experimental workshop in Kyiv’s city museum she met and worked with the artists of her time and increased her choice of materials.

In the exhibition, Maria Prymachenko’s paintings meet 20th-century works from the Moderna Museet Collection and works by two contemporary artists, Runo Lagomarsino and Susanna Marcus Jablonski. Artists such as Marc Chagall, Egon Möller-Nielsen, Niki de Saint Phalle, Lou Laurin-Lam and Pablo Picasso reinforce the presence of myth, metamorphosis and narratives.

“Together, the artworks constitute a brilliantly coloured lament,” says the exhibition curator Elisabeth Millqvist.

Paintings on paper became Maria Prymachenko’s primary mode of expression, and now more than 40 of her works, created over a period of 50 years are presented. Despite a life of vulnerability and personal losses, Prymachenko celebrates life in her art. She depicts agricultural traditions and paints luxuriant plants, but among her motifs there are also beasts – hybrid creatures with sharp claws, staring eyes and gaping mouths.

The exhibition proceeds from the fact that both Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) and Maria Prymachenko participated in the International Exposition in Paris in 1937. That was where Picasso showed his painting Guernica, which, like many of Prymachenko’s artworks, has become a symbol of peace. Several of the works that Prymachenko exhibited in 1937 are included in the exhibition. Besides war, Prymachenko experienced famine and catastrophe. She was born in Bolotnya in the Polesia region, 50 km from Chernobyl, which has become synonymous with the nuclear disaster. In the titles she gives to her works she comments on the world around her, prays for peace and curses war, and addresses individuals and politicians, as in the title from 1986. “Mister Reagan, look at this picture and understand how heavy and burdensome and foolish the atom is. Take a look and make peace with us so there will be peace on Earth.”

Thanks to the National Museum of Decorative Arts of Ukraine for the loan of the works. All images are used with the permission of the Maria Prymachenko Family Foundation.

This autumn’s exhibition at Malmö Konsthall presents a large number of works by Lenke Rothman (1929–2008). Rothman was a Swedish-Hungarian artist, writer and Holocaust survivor who came to Malmö with the assistance of the Red Cross in 1945. The exhibition “Life as Cloth” highlights Lenke Rothman’s unique conceptual approach to her working material. Read more

On 19 September, Malmö Konsthall and Moderna Museet Malmö invite you to a joint press conference ahead of the opening of this autumn’s exhibitions. The press conference will begin at Moderna Museet and continue at Malmö Konsthall. Transportation between these institutions is available for journalists who wish to attend both press previews.

09.30 Press preview at Moderna Museet Malmö of the exhibition “The Fantastic and Horrific – Maria Prymachenko and Works from the Moderna Museet collection”. Elisabeth Millqvist, curator of the exhibition and director of Moderna Museet Malmö, will present the exhibition in the presence of Liyudmyla Strokova, director of the National Museum of Decorative Art of Ukraine, Kyiv, and representatives from the Maria Prymachenko Family foundation. Coffee, tea and sandwiches will be served.

10.30 Transport to Malmö Konsthall

11.00 Press preview at Malmö Konsthall of the exhibition “Life as Cloth” by Lenke Rothman in the presence of the curators Mats Stjernstedt, Runo Lagomarsino and Rebecka Katz Thor.

RSVP no later than 16 September to Alexandra Giertz, a.giertz@modernamuseet.se, or Heidi Hakala (Malmö Konsthall), heidi.hakala@malmo.se. Please indicate whether you wish to participate in both press previews or only one of them, and if you need transportation. When registering, we ask you to state which newspaper or medium you are writing for.