Highlights: Famous and Forgotten Art Treasures from the Nationalmuseum

Transcription

1 Highlights: Famous and Forgotten Art Treasures from the Nationalmuseum Mikael Ahlund Curator, Paintings and Sculpture 15 May 31 August 2014 Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum Stockholm Volume 21

2 Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, is published with generous support from the Friends of the Nationalmuseum. Nationalmuseum collaborates with Svenska Dagbladet and Grand Hôtel Stockholm. We would also like to thank FCB Fältman & Malmén. Cover Illustrations Domenico Fetti (1588/ ), David with the Head of Goliath, c. 1617/20. Oil on canvas, 161 x 99.5 cm. Purchase: The Wiros Fund. Nationalmuseum, NM Publisher Berndt Arell, Director General Editor Janna Herder Editorial Committee Mikael Ahlund, Magdalena Gram, Janna Herder, Helena Kåberg, Magnus Olausson and Lidia Westerberg Olofsson. Photographs Nationalmuseum Photographic Studio/ Linn Ahlgren, Olle Andersson, Erik Cornelius, Anna Danielsson, Cecilia Heisser, Bodil Karlsson and Sofia Persson. Picture Editor Rikard Nordström Photo Credits Palazzo d Arco, Mantua, inv. 4494/Photo: Nationalmuseum Image Archives, from Domenico Fetti 1588/ , Eduard Safarik (ed.), Milan, 1996, p. 280, fig. 82 (Figs. 2 and 9A, pp. 13 and 19) Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow (Fig. 3, p. 13) bpk/staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden/ Elke Estel/Hans-Peter Klut (Figs. 4, 5B, 6B and 7B, pp ) Digital image courtesy of the Getty s Open Content Program (Figs. 8 and 10B, pp. 18 and 20) CATS-SMK (Fig. 10A, p. 20) Dag Fosse/KODE (p. 25) Nasjonalmuseet for kunst, arkitektur og design/ The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo (p. 28) SMK Photo (p. 31) From the article La Tour and Lundberg s portraits of la princesse de Rohan, by Neil Jeffares, Rohan.pdf, , (p. 40) The National Gallery, London. Bought, Courtauld Fund, 1924 (p. 42) Stockholms Auktionsverk (p. 47) Bukowskis, Stockholm (p. 94) Thron Ullberg 2008 (p. 108) 2014, State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg (pp ) Anhaltische Gemäldegalerie Dessau (pp ) Museen der Stadt Bamberg (pp. 140 and 142) Archive of Thomas Fusenig (p. 141) Nordiska museet, Stockholm/Karolina Kristensson (pp ) Every effort has been made by the publisher to credit organizations and individuals with regard to the supply of photographs. Please notify the publisher regarding corrections. Graphic Design BIGG Layout Agneta Bervokk Translation and Language Editing Gabriella Berggren, Martin Naylor and Kristin Belkin. Publishing Ingrid Lindell (Publications Manager) and Janna Herder (Editor). Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum is published annually and contains articles on the history and theory of art relating to the collections of the Nationalmuseum. Nationalmuseum Box SE Stockholm, Sweden Nationalmuseum, the authors and the owners of the reproduced works Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum Volume 21,

3 Highlights: Famous and Forgotten Art Treasures from the Nationalmuseum Mikael Ahlund Curator, Paintings and Sculpture 15 May 31 August 2014 The exhibition Highlights: Famous and Forgotten Art Treasures from the Nationalmuseum featured a selection of works from the Museum s various collections many of them sorely missed by the audience while the museum building on Blasieholmen is closed for refurbishment. The exhibition included paintings, sculptures, crafts and design. A large number of works from the 16th century up to today were chronologically presented. Early masters, such as Rembrandt, Judith Leyster (Fig. 1), François Boucher, Anne Vallayer-Coster and Clodion, were succeeded by later artists such as William Turner, Gustave Courbet, Rosa Bonheur, Auguste Renoir and Berthe Morisot, to name but a few. Foreign names were interspersed with Swedish artists such as Elias Martin (Fig. 2), Alexander Roslin, Ulrika Pasch, Marcus Larson, Anders Zorn, Bruno Liljefors, Eva Bonnier, and many others. Alongside paintings and sculptures, the exhibition gave equal prominence to a rich selection of objects from the Museum s collection of applied art and design, with several key works from the Renaissance up to our own times. Apart from objects such as Meissen porcelain and faïence from Rörstrand and Marieberg, the exhibition featured modern design and pieces by contemporary Swedish and international crafts designers, including Michael Eden, Eva Hild and Frida Fjellman. Also featured were 1960s and 70s applied art objects in the collection that have rarely or never before been shown, for instance, Fig. 1 Judith Leyster ( ), Boy Playing the Flute, 1630s. Oil on canvas, 73 x 62 cm. Nationalmuseum, NM Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum Volume 21, 2014

4 Fig. 2 Elias Martin ( ), Landscape with Spruce, c Oil on canvas, 115 x 89 cm. Nationalmuseum, NM Fig. 3 Ettore Sottsass ( ), sculpture Monument to Mustard, Tin-glazed ceramic, H. 280 cm. Nationalmuseum, NMK 28/1969. Ettore Sottsass so-called Monument to Mustard (Fig. 3) and Magdalena Abakanowicz s textile sculpture Abakan (Fig. 4). There was also a separate section on portraits, under the subheading Selfies: Now and Then (see separate article on p. 131). As a complement to the rich selection of famous paintings, sculptures and applied art objects, wall texts and the exhibition catalogue asked why some works have grown more well-known and popular than others. Words like highlight, classic and masterpiece were examined. What constitutes a masterpiece? Who decides? And how has the attitude to masterpieces changed over the years? The exhibition referred to how these issues had been explored in debates, museology research and museum studies and the discussions about an art history canon over the past decades. With its selection of works and texts, the exhibition focused on the question of what powers in the past and present influenced and still influence our views on art and art history. The exhibition specifically discussed the historic influence of museums in this process not least the Nationalmuseum. The accompanying texts described how individual works had achieved stardom, and discussed works that had once been famed but for various reasons are now more or less forgotten. As a complement to the theme of famous and unknown masterpieces, the exhibition also featured a few works that are rarely or never shown at the Museum obscure but nonetheless captivating art that has not previously been given much attention despite its merits. Thus, the works chosen for the presentation were a motley crew from art history celebrated masterpieces alternating with forgotten or comparatively obscure works. The changed attitude to various works by Rembrandt and other Dutch 17th-century painters over time was discussed, and how this has impacted on their fame. Changed views on later oeuvres over the past century were also commented upon, exemplified with works by August Strindberg, Ernst Josephson (Fig. 5) and Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum Volume 21,

5 Fig. 4 Magdalena Abakanowicz (b. 1930), Abakan, Sisal, woven, H. c. 380 cm, W. 360 cm. Nationalmuseum, NMK 3/1971. Fig. 5 Ernst Josephson ( ), Portrait of a Lady, 1890s. Oil on canvas, 111 x 87 cm. Nationalmuseum, NM ge. The exhibition also included examples of art that was praised from the beginning and has maintained its popularity. Olof Arborelius painted his view of a lake at Engelsberg in 1893, and the painting was bought for the Nationalmuseum collection the following year (Fig. 7). It has been one of the Museum s most popular paintings ever since. Its fame was augmented when it was chosen as the Sweden Painting in 1935 by the Swedish Tourist Board and reproduced as such in a plethora of contexts. This painting is also the Museum s most frequently copied work by visiting artists and art students. One of the aims of this exhibition was thus to shed light on the forces that have Carl Fredrik Hill, whose respective reputations geniuses was not established until well into the 20th century, when their paintings were viewed and reconsidered through the filter of modernism. The visual kinship between modern art and the unique imagery developed by these artists posthumously gave them a prominent position in Swedish 20th-century art historiography. Other artists and craftsmen, however, have experienced the opposite. This is true, for instance, of Carl Hjalmar Norrström. His elaborate steel urn from the late-19th century (Fig. 6), which was highly admired by Norrström s contemporaries, was disdained in the 20th century and banished to the darkness of the storashaped our views on art and its history and influenced our appreciation of individual works. By means of the selected examples, it demonstrated how museums and other media have identified masterpieces and highlights, and how opinions change over time. Another primary purpose of this exhibition was to show a rich selection from the Nationalmuseum s collection famous and unknown works that were brought out into the light for a while, before the refurbished Nationalmuseum once again opens its doors. 129 Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum Volume 21, 2014

6 Fig. 7 Olof Arborelius ( ), Lake View at Engelsberg, Oil on canvas, 81 x 120 cm. Nationalmuseum, NM Interior from the exhibition Highlights: Famous and Forgotten Art Treasures from the Nationalmuseum. Fig. 6 Carl Hjalmar Norrström ( ), Urn with cover, Steel, gilded, etched and blued, H. 133 cm, W. 54 cm. Nationalmuseum, NMK 21/1894. Exhibition curators: Mikael Ahlund and Anders Bengtsson Exhibition design: Joakim E. Werning Lighting design: Jan Gouiedo Exhibition technology and installation: The Technical Department at Nationalmuseum, under the supervision of Lennart Karlsson Chief conservators: Britta Nilsson, Maria Franzon and Nils Ahlner Exhibition manager: Anneli Carlsson Exhibition coordinator: Lena Granath Education officer: Helén Hallgren Archer Exhibition catalogue Highlights: Kända och okända konstskatter från Nationalmuseum (Swedish edition); Highlights: Famous and Forgotten Art Treasures from the Nationalmuseum (English edition) Nationalmusei utställningskatalog nr 671 (Nationalmuseum exhibition catalogue no. 671) ISBN (Swedish edition): ISBN (English edition): Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum Volume 21,