Early Modernism: 1900-1920 From The Moderna Museet Collection
(Exhibition 2011, Moderna Museet Malmö)
In this exhibition, we highlight works from Moderna Museet’s rich collection of early 20th century art, including artists such as Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Henri Matisse, Wassily Kandinsky, Siri Derkert, Sonia Delaunay, Edvard Munch, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and many others.
(Source: modernamuseet.se)
moderna museet
Everyone keeps talking about wanting to go to MoMA in New York. Of course, now that I’ve learned about its collections and the history of modern art, I wish to go there one day, too. But if you think about it, MoMA is not the only modern art museum that we can visit to see works of modern art. The Tate Modern in London and MUMOK in Vienna, among others, are some of the museums I personally want to visit. I came close to visiting the latter, actually, but due to time constraint I wasn’t able to pay the place a visit.
Another place that I didn’t get to go to, although I was already in the city at that time, was Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Sweden.
(In case you’re wondering what I was doing in Stockholm, of all places, it’s because I have family living there. Also, I’m 1/3 Swedish, just like I’m part-time Italian.)
Photo: Johan Fowelin
The building is perhaps nothing to look at. It’s certainly not a luxurious place from the outside and it doesn’t give off a “modern” vibe; instead it looks like a plain school building. But somehow it looks cool. (I would like to say “pretentiously cool” but yeah. There you go.)
They also have an outpost in Malmö, Sweden’s third largest city, and the buildings look just as “pretentiously cool”:
Photo: Åsa Lundén/Terje Östling
The Moderna Museet and Hallwylska Museet were recommended to me by my cousin. But at that time I had other priorities and didn’t visit these places. So of course I missed out on the Matisse, Braque and Kandinsky that they have in their collection. If I had been a little bit more interested in modern art, I would’ve definitely paid them a visit even though the entrance fee to museums in Sweden are rather pricey.
This year they have these exhibitions. They will have a Picasso-Duchamp exhibition in August (how amazing is that - Cubism AND Dada. I’m pretty sure it will be mind-blowing.) And a science-fiction exhibition in October? I WANT.
Meanwhile, the one in Malmö will have - are you ready for this? - The Supersurrealism exhibition. (In past recent months, they also had Moderna Museet Cinema and Ladies And Gentlemen exhibitions. It is official - when I go back to Sweden, I will visit Malmö.)
Infamously, the Moderna Museet in Stockholm had six Picasso and two Braques paintings stolen from its premises in 1993, in which the thieves copied a method from a 1955 film called Rififi. And only three of the Picassos have been recovered since then!
Since the infamous 1993 burglary of $66 million worth of Picassos and Braques, using methods copied from a French heist film, the Moderna Museet, tel: (46-8) 5195 5200, has been reworked to a Rafael Moneo design. (TIME.com)
So you can imagine that the place is not only well-designed, like all Swedish things are, but also adventurous.
Photo: Michel Setboun/Getty
As you can see, Sweden is not only good for Stieg Larsson novels, Pippi Longstocking, Noomi Rapace and H&M. It is also quite good for art as well. If you’re into art and into modern cities that are not dirty and crowded and filled with skyscrapers and a high crime rate, Stockholm will be better for you than New York. And Moderna Museet will be the museum to visit, instead of MoMA.
