Press release - 6 December 2011 10:14

Nationalmuseum gets passionate this spring

This spring’s big exhibition at Nationalmuseum, Passions, is all about emotion in art. Starting on 8 March, over 100 works depicting emotions such as sorrow, fear and joy will go on show. The artists represented include Dürer, Munch, Rembrandt, Tony Oursler, Rineke Dijkstra and Bill Viola.

Passions – Five Centuries of Art and the Emotions, the major exhibition at Nationalmuseum this spring, will examine how the emotions are interpreted and portrayed in art. Body language has been a source of fascination through the ages, right up to the present day. Self-help books and courses offer guidance on interpreting the secret language of the human body and on appropriate body language for various situations. Artists have been interested in the emotions, and how they are expressed, since ancient times, depicting facial expressions, gestures and body language in their works to convey sorrow, suffering, fear, melancholy, tenderness and joy.

The exhibition will also encourage visitors to reflect on their own emotions. Do we always show our feelings, or do we hide them? How do we show what we feel? Are we laughing with or at someone? Mirrors on the gallery walls will confront exhibition visitors with their own and their fellow visitors’ reactions to the artworks and the emotions conveyed.

The exhibition will feature over 100 works from the Renaissance to the present day, some from Nationalmuseum’s own collections, and others obtained on loan. The works will be a mix of painting, sculpture, video, drawing and graphic art, by artists such as Dürer, Munch, Rembrandt, Tony Oursler, Rineke Dijkstra and Bill Viola. The exhibition will also include a collection of illustrated books on physiognomy from the Hagströmer Library at Karolinska Institutet. A series of lectures, concerts and drama productions will be presented to tie in with the exhibition.

The exhibition runs from 8 March to 12 August 2012.

Catalogue
A fully illustrated exhibition catalogue will be published, containing articles by experts in art and music, history, the history of science and ideas, philosophy, and psychiatry.

Further information
Karin Sidén, exhibition curator, ksn@nationalmuseum.se, +46 8 5195 4301
Hanna Tottmar, press officer, htr@nationalmuseum.se, +46 8 5195 4390

Press images
www.nationalmuseum.se/pressroom

Captions
Rembrandt, Self-portrait; Bill Viola, Six Heads; Edvard Munch, Despair

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Welcome to Nationalmuseum Sweden!

Nationalmuseum is Sweden’s museum of art and design. The collections include paintings, sculpture, drawings and graphic art from the 16th century up to the beginning of the 20th century and the collection of applied art and design up to the present day. The total amount of objects is around 700,000. .

The emphasis of the collection of paintings is on Swedish 18th and 19th century painting. Dutch painting from the 17th century is also well represented, and the French 18th century collection is regarded as one of the best in the world. The works are made by artists such as Rembrandt, Rubens, Goya, Boucher, Watteau, Renoir and Degas as well as Swedish artists such as Anders Zorn, Carl Larsson, Ernst Josephson and Carl Fredrik Hill.

The collection of applied art and design consists of objects such as ceramics, textiles, glass and precious and non-precious metals as well as furniture and books etc. The collection of prints and drawings comprises works by Rembrandt, Watteau, Manet, Sergel, Carl Larsson, Carl Fredrik Hill and Ernst Josephson. Central are the 2,000 master drawings that Carl Gustaf Tessin acquired during his tour of duty as Sweden's ambassador to France in the 18th century.

Art and objects from Nationalmuseum’s collections can also be seen at several royal palaces such as Gripsholm, Drottningholm, Strömsholm, Rosersberg and Ulriksdal as well as in the Swedish Institute in Paris. The museum administers the Swedish National Portrait Gallery at Gripsholm Castle, the world’s oldest national portrait gallery and the Gustavsberg collection with approximately 45,000 objects manufactured at the Gustavsberg Porcelain Factory. Nationalmuseum also curates exhibitions at Nationalmuseum Jamtli and the Gustavsberg Porcelain Museum.

Nationalmuseum is a government authority with a mandate to preserve cultural heritage and promote art, interest in art and knowledge of art and that falls within the remit of the Swedish Ministry of Culture.

Nationalmuseum gets passionate this spring

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Welcome to Nationalmuseum Sweden!