Exhibitions at Nationalmuseum this autumn

1989 – culture and politics
5 September 2019 – 12 January 2020

This autumn will mark the thirty year anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall. It became the political symbol of a political world order that has endured since the end of the second world war. The exhibition examines what took place in the visual culture in the broadest sense in this radical historical period. It will be a kaleidoscopic blend of popular culture and fine culture which alternates between global perspectives and Swedish micro perspectives. It may for example feature the political resistance movement posters in Hungary and Czechoslovakia, mobile phone design, Jeff Koon’s postmodernism and latterday modernism by Jasper Morrison, music videos by Roxette, the emergence of video games, and the fashion of large shoulder pads. The exhibition reflects on the shift between the 1980’s and 1990’s as an historical breaking point and the concept of the exhibition theme revolves around terms such as freedom, liberation and the disintegration of borders.

The exhibition contains a mix of photographs, portraits, posters, videos and design by artists such as Cecilia Edefalk, David Goldblatt, Richard Avedon, Guerrilla Girls, Andres Serrano, Barbara Kruger and Nan Goldin. An exhibition catalogue is being published which includes texts about the themes in the exhibition, written by Per Hedström, Anna Charlotta Gunnarson, Kalle Lind, Estelle af Malmborg, Sara Kristoffersson and Andreas Johansson Heinö.


Hella Jongerius – Breathing Colour
17 October – 9 February 2020

The Hella Jongerius – Breathing Colour exhibition is ensconced in the borderline between art and design. It presents a visual examination of how colour and light interplay and change during all hours of the day. In forms of paper, textiles, ceramics, metal and plastics, internationally renowned star designer, Hella Jongerius displays her many years of artistic research into colour, light and materiality. Her study is deepened in the meeting of the works of art she has chosen from Nationalmuseum’s collection. After the renovation of Nationalmuseum, the museum exhibits art against coloured walls and integrated so that painting and sculpture meet textiles and ceramics from the same period. The colour schemes in the different rooms is the result of long-standing studies conducted by the museum into how colour, art and design interplay with the goal of giving the objects a context that increases their degree of visual attraction. In presenting Hella Jongerius – Breathing Colour to the audience hopefully will lead to increased reflection and discussion about how colour influences us and our experience of the world.

The exhibition is developed in partnership with the Design Museum, London where it was on show during summer 2017. In summer 2018 it was on show at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam. The exhibition in Stockholm has been made possible by the generous support of Nationalmusei Vänner.


More information
Hanna Tottmar, Head of press, press@nationalmuseum.se, +46 (0)8 5195 4400