Nationalmuseum opens June 16 - exhibitions this summer and autumn

Nationalmuseum will reopen to visitors under controlled conditions starting on June 16. To make this possible, the premises have been inspected measures taken to ensure compliance with the Public Health Agency of Sweden's social distancing recommendations. The restaurant and the shop will open at the same time as the museum. All lectures, public tours, workshop activities and booked group tours are cancelled until further notice and some changes to the summer and autumn exhibition programmes have been necessary. The exhibition Zorn – A Swedish Superstar is postponed until February 18, and Snowcrash until March 18 of next year. The Migrants exhibition at Gripsholm Castle is postponed until next summer. The exhibition Pär Engsheden and Sara Danius’s Nobel Gowns, already in place waiting for the museum to reopen, will be on show for the first time on June 16.

The newly renovated Gustavsberg Porcelain Museum will also open on June 16, and the exhibition Lisa Larson will open on June 23.

For those who are not yet able to visit in person, a wealth of digital art experiences are available via the museum’s social media accounts, through the newsletter and on the website.The public can also access Nationalmuseum's extensive object database and image archive, as well as the Nationalmuseum Visitor Guide app, which allows users to follow the history of the museum’s artworks from the 16th century until today.

Nationalmuseum
Pär Engsheden and Sara Danius’s Nobel Gowns
June 16, 2020 – February 21, 2021
Between 2015 and 2018, Pär Engsheden created four notable dresses for Sara Danius, the Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy. The design process involved an unusually close collaboration between the couturier and the wearer of his creations. These iconic garments are now on display together with the accessories that Danius wore with them and Carl Bengtsson's photographs of her wearing the gowns. The exhibition has been produced in close collaboration with Pär Engsheden, as well as Sara Danius and her family.

Arcadia – A paradise lost
September 17, 2020 – January 17, 2021
In classic landscape paintings from 17th century Italy and France, nature is not the only thing on display. The paintings often also contain stories and symbols from fairy tales, literature and philosophy. By rediscovering these stories, it is possible to gain a glimpse of a bygone world, while also encountering many similarities with contemporary reflections on nature, climate and landscapes. The exhibition comprises over 100 works, both from the museum's own collections and on loan from international museums. It presents works by such artists as Claude Lorrain, Antoine Watteau, Salvator Rosa and Nicolas Poussin.

The Gustavsberg Porcelain Museum
Lisa Larson
June 23, 2020 – April 11, 2021
Lisa Larson is perhaps Sweden's most famous ceramicist, and her figurines are certainly the most popular. Her Advent children and cats adorn many homes. The first temporary exhibition to be presented following the reopening of the newly renovated Gustavsberg Porcelain Museum presents approximately 200 objects dating from 1954–1980, when the artist was employed by the Gustavsberg Porcelain Factory. It is virtually impossible to provide a complete account of Lisa Larson’s career as a creator of ceramic objects. Instead, the exhibition delves into a variety of well-known and more obscure creations, thus providing insight into the work behind the figurines – from one-of-a-kind objects to series, from inspiration to production, from craft to industry.

Nationalmuseum Jamtli
18th Century – Sweden and Europe
June 18, 2020 – April 11, 2021
The exhibition focuses on the artistic relationships between Sweden and Europe during the 18th century. It was a century marked by war and hardship, but also by optimism for the future, utilitarian thinking and faith in science, and a period in which art was closely linked to politics and diplomacy. The topics of the exhibition include war and diplomacy, trade and science, the birth of Rococo, Gustav III in Italy, neoclassicism and English influences. Approximately 180 works from Nationalmuseum's collections are on display, by artists such as Alexander Roslin, Johan Tobias Sergel, Carl Hårleman, Louis Jean Desprez, Angelika Kauffmann, Carl August Ehrensvärd, Pehr Hilleström, Elias Martin and Carl Fredrik von Breda.

Läckö Castle
Handle with Care – Fragile, fleeting, finite
June 13 – August 30, 2020
Over the centuries, visual artists and craftsmen have worked with the fragile, the fleeting and the finite in the arts. By playing with materials andtechniques, artists have found new expressions. Fragility has sometimes been an aim and an aesthetic quality, both as a process and a state. The exhibition presents approximately one hundred objects from Nationalmuseum's collections, and delves into both Läckö's 17th-century heyday and our contemporary era.

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