Ulrik Samuelson, The McLuhan Trilogy, 1982 - 1983 © Ulrik Samuelson/ Bildupphovsrätt 1998
Ulrik Samuelson
Second Hand
5.12 1998 – 7.2 1999
Stockholm
In 1974, as a contribution to a discussion on the possibilities for art and the artist to move into broader perspectives than traditional painting, Samuelson wrote “Visual arts must artfully re-enter into the world”. The exhibition Live Show is an example of this, consisting of environments by Samuelson, Björn Lövin and Sivert Lindblom that were shown at Moderna Museet in 1974. Kungsträdgården´s underground station, Stockholms Stadsteater and the Sergel cinema at Hötorget in Stockholm are some of the public spaces where Samuelson has constructed environments that people use each day. In this retrospective, the artist will occupy space in the newly opened museum with paintings and objects from the 1950s to the present.
A catalogue (with 250 colour illustrations) in Swedish and English has been published for the exhibition, with contributions by Lars Nittve, Olle Granath, Stefan Alenius, Mårten Castenfors, Cecilia Widenheim and Ulrik Samuelson.
Curator: Cecilia Widenheim
Ulrik Samuelson is one of Sweden´s leading artists. His work is hard to categorise because it blurs the distinctions between painting, sculpture, installation, architecture and design. This exhibition is a completely new installation which incorporates within its scope many previous works.Already by the middle of the 1960s, Samuelson had become interested in the concept of the room and its broader meaning. To work in the same spatial context as the viewer, in which the object´s relationship to the viewer is in a sense provisional, is more usually today described as installation art. Samuelson, however, prefers to talk about concentration of substances.
This retrospective exhibition is itself a “concentration” of both time itself and the spaces in which he has installed his work. Objects and paintings from forty years are arranged side by side in new and old forms – a new “installation” in itself.
Samuelson´s early installations are characterised by a concern with environmental issues as well as with an idea about the importance of the object as a thing in itself. NeoDada, Pop, Conceptual Art, Minimalism had staked out new paths. During the 1960s and early 1970s the Modern Museum organised such exhibitions as “Inner and outer space” and featured American Pop Art and Edward Kienholz´s work. Art began to gravitate towards the viewer´s experience and to the world outside the museum. That, and Marcel Duchamp´s subversive perspectives, exerted their influence on Samuelson´s work.
Samuelson´s best known public work is his design for the Kungsträdgården Underground Station in Stockholm. In a cave-like excavation 35 metres under the earth, passengers are confronted by a series of objects and illusions which enter into a dialogue between art, style and architecture of different times and the present.
In connection with the exhibition, a slide presentation of Samuelson´s public works, produced by Per Bergström, will be shown in the Cinema.
