Museum #4: Moderna Muset

The fourth museum that we visited was the Modern Art Museum, Moderna Muset. One of the reasons to pick this one during December vacation is not that it is free before Jan 1, but that I wanted to see the ticketed exhibition of Hilma af Klint ‘den 10 största’ before it closes in the first week of January. Hilma was born in Stockholm in 1862 to an Aristocratic family, and was one of the first women to attend Tekniska skolan for fine art studies. She started with landscapes and portraits but is best known for her abstract works, which pre-date the abstract works of the ‘fathers of abstract painting’ Kandinsky, Malevich, and Mondrian. Her personal and spiritual beliefs informed her paintings, and she developed a rigorous symbology to try to visualize invisible phenomena. Most of the Moderna information is in Swedish, but the Guggenheim produced a video that you can see below.

I also really enjoyed an installation by Sara Sejin Chang which dealt with transnational/transracial adoption, we we took in some of the Nan Goldin installations. We also saw the regular collections, which were a nicely curated journey through the last 140 years of Western art. Moderna also had a great entry into our tour of museum cafés, with definitely the best view and also a good menu. We both had golden beet and Västerbottensost risotto (bread and salad bar included, obs).

UPDATE! I forgot to add it before, but there was a 2022 movie made about Hilma af Klint’s life, which has been advertised this fall and winter on the Stockholm subway. It is shown on the local Swedish streaming service and is a Swedish production, but filmed in English. Fun fact: the ‘young Hilma” actor is played by the daughter of the ‘old Hilma’ actor.