The Inner Flow of Life

Erika and I visited the sculpture park created by The Princess Estelle Cultural Foundation already last year. It is under continuous development, with a long-term plan to add one new sculpture every year.

This year, a fifth permanent sculpture in the park was added, and it was an artwork by Giuseppe Penone, someone I am well acquainted with from the Louvre Abu Dhabi. I almost always finish my tours by presenting his artwork Propagation, that I also wrote my thesis on for my Bachelor.

So of course, I had to come and see the new sculpture!

We joined the daily (free!) guided tour, and fortunately for us, it started with the newest addition.

 

This is a site specific work called The Inner Flow of Life. It consists of a massive granite block with a slender tree trunk springing forth with its roots pointing towards the sky. It measures 10 meters and weighs 60 tonnes. It’s imagery is a bit like a dandelion that manages to grow out of asphalt. It can be seen as a symbol of the power we all carry within us, and a reminder that everything is possible no matter how difficult life might be at times. 

 

We deviated from the tour after the first stop, as we had seen the rest of the sculptures last summer, and went to have lunch instead. Swedish meatballs, yum!

Then we continued our cultural explorations at the Thiel Gallery, but more about that in a separate post.

Roof top fun

By chance, our friends Claudia & Fredrik, who normally live in Germany, were also in Stockholm this week, although one night only. They were on their way up to Siljan, where their daughter was going to get confirmed.

After a mussel dinner...

... Erika and I met up with them and their whole extended family at the roof top bar of their hotel for a night cap after dinner. Nice to see them, and lovely way to spend an evening.

Millesgården

It might have helped that we had stunning summer weather the day we visited Millesgården, but oh MY, what a beautiful place!

This is a unique environment, with the home of famous sculptor Carl Milles and his wife Olga; situated in a huge museum park with sculptures, fountains - and views for days. All the most important works of the artist are installed here, the garden features over 100 sculptures.

Carl Milles studied at the École des Beaux-Arts, and displayed his sculptures at the Paris Salon between 1899-1906. He met his wife Olga in Paris, and Millesgården was their home and studio during the 1910s and 1920s.

It opened to the public in the late 1930s after it was donated to the Swedish nation by the couple, who at the time resided in the USA.

 

We took our time to enjoy the gardens, which are arranged in different levels, with something new around every corner. Then we visited the house, which was just as inspiring.

 

In the kitchen, the breakfast nook features Olga’s decorative paintings on the cupboards, inspired by the walls which are covered with glazed ceramic tiles from Delft, Holland.

 

Their motto:

We could also visit Carl Milles’ impressive collection of ancient sculptures and fragments, permanently installed here in the Eastern Gallery. What a beautiful space!

His workshop:

Beauty and grace in every corner, something to admire everywhere:

The particularly beautiful day gave a stunning clear blue backdrop to all the sculptures:

Moderna Museet Stockholm

Linnea and I returned to Sweden this week, straight into Stockholm with Emirates after getting bumped day after day off the Copenhagen flight with Etihad. 
It was actually not such a bad thing (even though we had to fly Economy...), because we were heading up there anyway. Linnea was going to stay with the twins on Ekerö for a few days, and I was going to catch up with Erika.

Last summer we visited a bunch of museums, both Etnografiska Museet, Östasiatiska Museet and Medelhavsmuseet - but we ran out of steam and only saw the outside of Moderna Museet. So this year, that's where we started!

The Moderna Museet art collection is rather vast, it comprises of more than 130,000 works, including 6,000 paintings and more than 100,000 photographs. This means that only a part of the collection can be on display at any chosen moment, with constant changes in the narrative of the exhibition.

We started with the 'The Third Hand' exhibition, by Italian Maurizio Cattelan. He had used artworks and pieces from the Moderna Museet Collection in dialogue with his own, to question the conventions of society - in general and in the art world in particular.

This is Tableau tir (1961) by Niki de Saint Phalle. It was created by the artists pulling the trigger of a loaded gun on her work, causing bags and cans of paint explode and making the art works almost bleed, like human beings.The act could be seen as performance art. Niki de Saint Phalle was the only woman to be included in the Nouveau Réalisme group in the early 1960s, together with among others Yves Klein, Christo and Jean Tinguely.

I really liked the central room in this exhibition, where the artist had created a sort of a square. The walls were hung with paintings that are usually mounted on pull-out screens in the depository of the museum, installed in the same way as in storage where aesthetic and ideological principles are put away for more practical considerations. No hierarchy here.

By presenting artworks randomly selected, and pieces normally not shown, Cattelan challenge the power that a museum exerts through its choices.
In the middle of the room there was a full-sized copy of the monumental sculpture L.O.V.E (2010). The original can be found in Milan.

The presence of pigeons all throughout this exhibition, emphasized the feeling of no borders, outdoors and indoors seemed to be merged together. The stuffed pigeons -  Ghosts (2021) - were observing us as we moved from room to room.

In this room, we could also enjoy a series by Cecilia Edelfalk, called Elevator (1998). The same image painted in different formats and in a variety of styles. The motif was inspired by a spiritual experience Edelfalk had at a museum in Tuscany, where she suddenly saw an angel pointing at her.

We also enjoyed the 'Pink Sails' exhibition, which explored artists in the Swedish Modernism movement, art from 1900 to the 1940s.
Here a sculpture by Sven X-et Erixson from 1933 called The Sculpture (A portrait of Bror Hjorth).

A very famous painting, The Dying Dandy (1918) by Nils Dardel. Great to see it live, as we studied it in my art history course.

Another painting to the right by Dardel, and two paintings by Fernand Léger, an artist we present also at the Louvre Abu Dhabi at the moment.

View of Slussen (1919) by Sigrid Hjertén, another favourite of mine:

The final exhibition was called 'Seven Rooms and a Garden', and was created by American artist and filmmaker Rashid Johnson. His work was in conversation and sometimes even in confrontation with the artworks from the collection of Moderna Museet.

In all the works of this exhibition, Johnson explored the gesture of abstraction as an art historical lineage, a necessity, and a personal appeal.

I was happy to also get to enjoy some other very famous pieces, like these two, by Man Ray - Indestructible object 1923/1965 - and surrealist Méret Oppenheim.
My Nurse (1936/37) is one of my favourite pieces:

This was also impressive to get to see up close, The Enigma of Wilhelm Tell (1933) by Salvador Dalí:

No Stockholm visit is complete without a visit to Pytterian, so that's where we headed when it was lunchtime. Om nom nom!