Page 51 - Studio International - May 1969

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Lars Costa Lindberg Per Kleiva Pye Engstrom Game for adults
oil on canvas with attachments Claustrophobia multiple
Galerie Prisma silkscreen print
6 5ox 50 cm. Siri Derkert decoration in Ostermanstorg station,
'A Model for a Qualitative Society' Stockholm underground
Moderna Museet, Stockholm
tive painter, with pop overtones. This most cussion, are those executed by the veteran in Sweden, however, is the least heralded, and
recent showing of his work was concerned artist Siri Derkert at the Ostermanstorg is to be found in the field of multiples. In
with twin themes-the girl and the potato. station in the heart of bourgeois Stockholm. many ways, multiples are peculiarly well­
The artist says that he started off using apples The artist has used a sand-blasting technique adapted to the Swedish situation. The country
and girls, but that the effect was 'too sym­ to create giant graffiti on the walls. These is large and thinly populated-distances can
bolic'; that what he wanted to do was to play graffiti exalt Chairman Mao and other be vast: it takes as long to fly to the far north
off against one another two different dimen­ heroes of the Left. There are slogans in several of Sweden from Stockholm as it does to fly to
sions of existence, without overtones. Sym­ languages, and snatches of songs, such as Rome from the same city. Sweden is pros­
bolism inevitably crept in by the back door, 'La Maiseilleise' and the 'Internationale'. The perous and well-educated. A good proportion
but the effect was interesting, and lacked the result is curiously effective, though the decora­ of the population both have a little money to
rather disconcerting slickness of a good deal tions have provoked a number of other spare and are interested in the arts. It is
of current Swedish art. 'amateur' graffiti in contradiction and protest. therefore not surprising to discover that some
Another deliberately 'rough' painter is the These decorations, executed about three years of the galleries I have mentioned issue both
neo-primitive Ake Pallarp. I call him 'neo­ ago, represent perhaps the beginning of the graphics and objects in unlimited editions­
primitive' rather than just 'primitive' as it is great wave of radical sentiment which has both the Galerie Prisma and the Galerie
clear that his deliberately crude and hasty swept through all the arts in Sweden. In its Buren have been active in this field.
style has been chosen as a way of outflanking cruder form, this radicalism can be discon­ More surprising, and even more admirable,
the demands of Scandinavian romanticism. certing. A tour of the studios of the STOCKHOLM is the official backing which multiples are
For example, he parodies the kind of expres­ ACADEMY (the equivalent of our own Royal accorded. An organization called Konst­
sionist landscape which Swedish artists used Academy Schools) revealed that most of the framjandet (which is closely linked to the
to produce in the fifties (some still do). students in this institution are producing powerful Swedish trade union organizations)
A third commercial gallery, besides the two I figurative art of crushing banality. The rea­ has recently been staging simultaneous exhi­
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have just mentioned, which is showing in­ son seemed to be that 'it is difficult to make bitions throughout the country. The first
teresting new artists is the GALERIE PRISMA. a political point through abstract painting'. experiment was a show of objects and graphics
Under the guidance of its Danish owner, Leif The leading art-magazines have tended to be­ by about seventy leading artists which opened
Nielsen, this seems to specialize in a kind of come so highly politicized that it is hard to in more than a hundred communities on the
crisp, elegant pop art which often owes a good extract from them any very useful informa­ same day, backed by powerful TV-coverage.
deal to Rosenquist. tion about art-this is perhaps truer of the The most popular-and the most controver­
Any description of contemporary Swedish leading art-magazine in Gothenberg, which sial-piece in this set of exhibitions is illus­
art which concentrates exclusively on indi­ is run by an artists' co-operative, than of the trated here: Pye Engstrom's small bronze
vidual artists and gallery showings will, how­ Stockholm periodical Konstrevy. sculpture, Game for adults. The experiment
ever, tend to miss the point. Art in Sweden is But there have been exciting developments as was adjudged so successful that now a more
eclectic-it ranges from Pallarp's roughness well. One has been the extremely imaginative ambitious project is planned. In November
to the experiments with lasers which have policy pursued by the MODERNA MUSEET in of this year there will be simultaneous exhi­
recently been made by Carl Frederik Reuters­ Stockholm, under the directorship of Pontus bitions of multiples in 1100 schools through­
ward. The missing element, so far as a British Hulten. Last year, the Museum staged a out Sweden. These exhibitions (each will
or American critic is concerned, is probably hotly controversial exhibition entitled 'A contain fifteen objects, specially created) will
the lack of 'cool' abstraction. There is little Model for a Qualitative Society'. This was a come to the school as a 'package', with
interest in the kind of work which is now free-expression show for children. The child f ames, exhibition stands, explanatory leaflets
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being done by artists such as Stella and visitors were supplied with materials of etc., for a sum which is the equivalent of £35.
Noland, and there is not much sculpture of various sorts, and instructed to go ahead and The objects do not compromise with public
the Philip King-Tim Scott variety. Despite create their own environment within the taste-there is a range of styles, but avant­
this, the art-scene in Stockholm is thoroughly Museum. Adults were not admitted. The garde art is well represented. As in the pre­
international, and there is nothing which result seems to have been messy, noisy and vious show, the exhibits will be for sale.
represents a breakaway from currently esta­ cathartic. The Modern Museum, once the Prices will be around the £1 to £2 mark. And
blished styles. centre for all activities of this kind in Stock­ again there will be massive TV-coverage.
To dismiss contemporary Swedish art for this holm, now has a serious rival in the STADT­ Such projects are still too new, even in
reason would be a mistake, as its real origi­ MUSEET-a municipal gallery which was ori­ Sweden, for their full impact to be assessed,
nality and importance are to be found else­ ginally devoted to illustrating the history of but they probably mean that modern art is
where. What is impressive is the developing Stockholm, that is, to doing much the job achieving greater penetration there than in
relationship between the contemporary Swed­ which the London Museum does here. Now it any other country in the world.
ish arti t and the community that surrounds also does 'social concern' exhibitions. Outside EDWARD LUCIE-SMITH
him. The fact that Swedish artists get a good the building when I visited Stockholm in
deal of support from public commissions is March stood a disposable sculpture made of
already well-known. The City of Stockholm gigantic cones of coloured ice, by Hanns
spends about 3 million kroner per annum on Karlewski. The idea was that these would be
purchasing contemporary art. The results of distorted into new shapes as the springtime
this generosity can be seen in unexpected warmth melted them. This seemed to me a 1 See Studio International, Dec., 1968: 'A new gallery
places-for example in the stations of the more interesting kind of minimal sculpture to house the Henie-Onstad Collection', by John
Boulton Smith.
Stockholm underground. The decorations than the kind of thing which gets put out on 2 See also Studio International, Dec., 1967: 'Multi­
here are of variable merit. Perhaps the most the lawns at Battersea and Brighton. konst-a Swedish experiment in the distribution of
important, from the point of view of this dis- Perhaps the most important work being done prints and multiple art objects', by Peter Bird.
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