Forskningsprojekt

Masculinity and Femininity in Herwarth and Nell Walden’s Der Sturm

The subject of research is the visual culture and exhibition practices of Der Sturm, the joint name of an avant-garde magazine (1910-32), an art gallery (1912-28) and a publishing house founded in Berlin by Herwarth Walden. From 1912 Nell Walden, b. Roslund, collaborated with her husband on exhibitions and other activities associated with the Sturm, not least the work to build up a Sturm art collection. This project examines how gendered identities were negotiated, represented and performed in and through the visual culture and politics of art display in the Sturm as well as in art historical writing on the Sturm. The research includes analyses of written and visual material as well as spatial practices, e.g. photographs, art works, illustrations, travelling exhibitions and the public display of the Walden art collection in their home.

Project leader: Jessica Sjöholm Skrubbe, PhD
Funding: Vetenskapsrådet

The King’s Tomahawk. Collecting and Displaying the Other in Seventeenth Century Sweden.

In a showcase at the Museum of Ethnography in Stockholm a tomahawk is displayed, made in eastern North America and dated back to the seventeenth century. Besides being a precious and unusually well-preserved example from its time, of the material culture of Native Americans, it is also incorporated in a narrative on cultural encounters and transactions, and on Sweden’s colonial past. Already in the 1680’s the tomahawk was shown in Stockholm as part of the collections of King Charles XI. It thus suggests that the young nation shaped its self-image not only in relation to other European nations, but also to the world outside of Europe. Taking possession of the world, materially as well as mentally, was an important part of the construction of a national identity.
This project is about non-European objects acquired by Swedish Royalties and Nobility in the seventeenth century: artistically shaped weapons, jewellery, textiles, ritual objects and utility goods from America, Africa and Asia. How did these objects reach Sweden? How were they classified? What other kinds of objects were they displayed with? At what occasions were they looked at and used? In negotiating issues like these, the project approaches the more fundamental question of how non-European objects were incorporated in a narrative about the Other and, ultimately, contributed to the formation of a national identity.

Project participant: Mårten Snickare, Associate Professor
Funding: Riksbankens Jubileumsfond

Feminist Processes of Legitimization in Video Art History

The project examines art historical narratives of video art and focus particularly on how these surveys address art by women artists and feminist art practices. Historically, video art and women/feminist studies at universities are contemporary. Both fields are characterized by a strong sense of performing (ideological) critique. Within the surveys examined, there is a strong tendency to mark the artists by their sex. Women artists foremost appear in chapters exclusively devoted to art practices exploring feminist and/or gender issues; (the idea of) feminist art practices thus appear as the primary admission for - hence a legitimizing strategy of - women video artists. The project is performed as a historiographical analysis of this art form as a specific discourse and investigates the ideological grounds, assumptions and statements for this sex-biased division of artistic practices within these surveys. Furthermore, notions like women artist and feminist artist/art are discussed in depth. As a consequence, the presumption that there is something like un-gendered art practices is further examined.

Project participant: Malin Hedlin Hayden, PhD/ Associate Professor

Funding: Åke Wibergs stiftelses postdoktorala stipendium i Konstvetenskap.

Rhetorical femininity

Initially this project was part of Feminist Processes of Legitimization in Video Art History. But as the latter evolved it became clear that ideas of femininity and visual representations of this concept were better suited for a separate project. Due to the fact that a large part of the by now canonized early video art works produced by women artists were labelled "feminist", certain topics have prevailed within the understanding of both the art form and the particular art production by women. The, perhaps, most obvious one is "femininity" (and/or "womanhood"). The project explores the trajectory of this topic, focusing on a number of projected art works by contemporary artists. I am particularly interested in the relations between ideas of femininity and feminist theories, as they are both visually represented and understood in critical art writing.

Project participant: Malin Hedlin Hayden, PhD/ Associate Professor

St. Peter’s in the Vatican and the recovery of early Christian Antiquity in seventeenth-century Rome

The subject of the research project is the completion of New St. Peter’s between 1605 and 1621, i.e. during the pontificate of Paul V Borghese. The question is whether the architectural project of Carlo Maderno for the basilica actually included an explicit intention to recover, physically and-or symbolically, the memory of the old church of S. Peter's, and, in that case, in which forms a recovery was expressed and realized. Some of the specific problems I intend to address in my investigation are the building and decoration of the new portico, the ciborium and the high altar, the confessio and the grottoes.

Project leader: PhD Anna Bortolozzi

Funding: Riksbankens Jubileumsfond

Kvinnliga trädgårdsarkitekter i Sverige under 1900-talets första hälft. Mot en professionell yrkesidentitet

Syftet med projektet är att undersöka hur kvinnliga trädgårdsarkitekter under 1900-talets första hälft uppnådde en professionell yrkesidentitet. I detta ligger att analysera och problematisera vilka möjligheter de hade att förvärva relevant utbildning samt att verka inom fältet. Studien genomförs tematiskt utifrån uppställda frågeställningar som social bakgrund, utbildning, verksamhet, eget kontor eller anställd, egna publikationer, medverkan i tävlingar och utställningar, typ av gestaltade uppdrag osv.

Deltagare: FD Catharina Nolin

Finansiering: Riksbankens Jubileumsfond

Michelangelos Yttersta domen och firandet av tenebrae i Sixtinska kapellet

Syftet med studien är att presentera en nytolkning av Michelangelos målning Yttersta domen (1535-1541) i Sixtinska kapellet. Framför allt kommer den att tolkas i relation till firandet av tenebrae under påskveckan i Sixtinska kapellet. Dessutom kommer frågan om hur målningen användes och gestaltades under andra delar av kyrkoåret att undersökas, liksom relationen mellan Yttersta domen och den övriga konsten i kapellet. Slutligen är det av intresse att undersöka målningens ställning inom den autonoma estetiken, där den omedelbart och in i vår egen tid kommit att bli både omdiskuterad och beundrad.

Deltagare: Professor Peter Gillgren

Finansiering: Riksbankens jubileumsfond

Performativitet i barockens konst

Det överordnade syftet med projektet är att undersöka performativa aspekter av bildkonst, skulptur och arkitektur i 1600-talets Europa. Begreppet performativitet, med rötter i lingvistiken, har under det senaste decenniet ofta använts inom kulturvetenskaperna i studier av hur människor formar sin identitet genom handlingar och symboler. Vi vill utveckla begreppet till en konstvetenskaplig tolkningsmodell enligt vilken konstverk och miljöer ses som iscensättningar där handlingar utförs, betydelser aktualiseras och identiteter formas.

Deltagare: Professor Margaretha Rossholm Lagerlöf (projektledare), professor Peter Gillgren, Fil dr Martin Olin, Fil dr Mårten Snickare

Finansiering: Vetenskapsrådet

Bilden av Orienten. Exotism i 1800-talets svenska bildvärld

Inom projektet undersöks med hjälp av
postkolonial teoribildning hur orienten på olika sätt gestaltats under
1800-talet i Sverige. Materialet omfattar allt från målningar och
tidningsillustrationer till utställningar och kongresser.

Deltagare: Docent Tomas Björk

Finansiering: Riksbankens jubileumsfond

”Viva El Greco, Bögarnas Konung.” Rolf de Marés intresse för El Greco. Konstsamlande och estetik ur queer perspektiv

Forskningen handlar om en kult av den grekisk/spanske 1500-talsmålaren El Grecos målningar som var utbredd i kretsar av homosexuella män i Europa under tidigare delen av 1900-talet. Det ena spåret är en kartläggning av bildkulturen kring El Grecos målningar - konstnärliga parafraser av exempelvis franske konstnären Jean Cocteau och konstsamlande av Rolf de Maré. Det andra spåret är analys och söker efter de bildelement som särskilt uppskattades av dessa konstnärer, betraktare och samlare. Forskningen bidrar till att på ett nyskapande sätt lyfta fram samband mellan homosexualitet och konstsamlande.

Deltagare: FD Patrik Steorn

Finansiering: Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien med medel från Torsten Amundssons fond