ART / STOCKHOLM MODERN
Stockholm’s Moderna Museet is found on a small island in the middle of the city, connected to the rest of the city only through one bridge, but otherwise a world of its own.
Few who visit the museum today reflect on – or are even aware of – the museum’s turbulent past.
Theodor Ahrenberg, also known as Teto Ahrenberg, was born into a wealthy Swedish family, and became one of the world’s most prominent collectors of modern art, often guided in his selections by gallerist Agnes Widlund, who introduced him to many French artists that were part of her network.
Widlund, born in Hungary, but based in Stockholm after having finished her education in Paris, used her gallery Samlaren to create a bridge between Scandinavia and the Continent.
She travelled extensively between Sweden and France (where she also had a small house, in St. Agnes on Côte d’Azur) to keep close track of the development of “her” artists, and to be able to inform Scandinavian collectors of when there were new key pieces to invest in.
After a disagreement with the director of the Swedish National Museum of Art, Ahrenberg’s offer to bequeath his collection of modern art to the museum was rejected.
Ahrenberg instead contacted Le Corbusier, who in 1962 presented the duo’s joint plans for a new museum of modern art, to be built in Stockholm, and which would link together modern art and architecture, making Stockholm a European capital of culture.
Before this project could be realized, Ahrenberg hastily had to go into exile, following the reveal of a large financial fraud. His secretary was arrested as she entered Sweden carrying an illegal amount of money when coming back from Switzerland.
Ahrenberg never returned to Sweden again, and his art collection was confiscated by the Swedish state.
He settled down in Switzerland, and the plans made by Le Corbusier were eventually used to create the Ahrenberg Museum in Zürich, opened in 2005.
With Ahrenberg in exile, Pontus Hultén became the most dominant presence on the Swedish art scene.
During the artistically very dynamic 1950s, Hultén became friends with Marcel Duchamp and Jean Tinguely, and his wife, Niki de Saint Phalle.
As head of Stockholm’s Moderna Museet he invited both Tinguely and de Saint Phalle to exhibit their work.
The 1966-Saint Phalle exhibition and the retrospective of Warhol in 1968 are considered two of the most important exhibitions in the history of the museum.
The 1968-exhibition however would also result in an international scandal: Part of the exhibition were approximately ten “Brillo boxes” made by Warhol. In 1990, in preparation for a Warhol-exhibition in Saint Petersburg, Hultén produced an additional 70 boxes.
In the years that followed, Hultén both sold and donated these new copies of the old originals, while claiming them as originals, thus making a nice profit. The scandal wasn’t exposed until after Hultén’s death.
Many of the exhibitions that Hultén curated are today considered seminal in the history of modern art, often based in a combination of his wide social network and deep understanding and appreciation of modern art.
Today, the legacy of Hultén’s long reign is still visible in and around Moderna Museet. Sculptures by Pablo Picasso, Alexander Calder and de Saint Phalle adorn the outdoor spaces around the museum building, a reminder of the time when Stockholm was part in shaping the world of contemporary art.
