Page 3 - The Documenta issue of World of Art magazine (2002)

Moderna Museet c/o Waldemarsudde

Prince Eugene’s input as a collector of art was unique. He
collected contemporary art, and even if this might seem
natural to us this was not the case in Prince Eugene’s
days. The Prince was also highly involved in the thought
of creating a Swedish museum for modern art, and he
donated a number of works to the National gallery, works
that today belong to Moderna Museet.

At the exhibition Moderna Museet c/o Waldemarsudde
international Modernism from Moderna Museet’s MODERN MUSEUM
collection will meet works from the Prince’s collection of
c/o Waldemarsudde
Swedish and Nordic Modernism.
Prince Eugene’s art collecting, which covers a period of stockholm
60 years, was mostly focused on his own period. It was
during his study days in Paris 1887-89 that Prince Eugene
bought the first works that would form his collection. 28.9 - 16.2 2003
works by Hugo Birger and Per Ekström. When his home
at Waldemarsudde was completed 1905 the collection
began to grow. At an early stage the Prince made clear
that he would focus foremost on Swedish and Nordic art.
French artists dominate among the non-Nordic countries
represented. In the collection works by members of the art
union, academicians, pupils of Matisse and artists of the
New Objectivity as well as more expressive painters exist
next to predecessors of a more naivistic and Romanian
temperament. The young Swedish artists of the 1930-40s constantín Br ancusi
are also represented. Some international Modernism can the neW Born ii 1919 - 1921
be found, if only in small but important numbers, examples Belongs to moderna museet
are works by Robert Delaunay, André Derain, André Lhote
and Pablo Picasso. Waldemarsudde therefore sees it as a
great opportunity to complement their almost complete
Swedish-Nordic collection with a number of tops of the
art works by non-Nordic artists from Moderna Museet’s
collection.

The chosen works from Moderna Museet’s collection
have their starting point in Prince Eugene’s purchases of
Swedish art. What impulses reached the Swedish artists,
what did they take to their hears? But most important of
all – what kind of art did they meet in France, in Germany
and at exhibitions in Sweden?

With this exhibition Waldemarsudde aims to present some
of the impulses and impressions that reached Swedish
artists from abroad, as well as highlight what could be
seen in Sweden at the same time. The chosen works are
therefore, whit some exceptions, works that have been in
governmental museum’s collections prior to 1947 when
the Prince passed away. From Moderna Museet some
of the collections most appreciated works are shown,
Pablo Picasso, Alberto Giacometti, Sonia Delaunay, Henri
Matisse, Paule Klee, Wassily Kandinsky and Fernand Léger
among others.

Curator Group: Hans Henrik Brummer, Christina Wistman
and Göran Söderlund