Gallery 01:13

ANNA RIWKIN - SPEKTRUM   /   BROR HJORTH - THE GAZE

ANNA RIWKIN - SPEKTRUM Anna Riwkin devoted her long career as a photographer to portraits, dance and photojournalism. Anna Riwkin was born in 1908 in Surazh, Russia, now in Belarus. Her Jewish family moved to Sweden at the start of the First World War.

By the late 1920s, the Riwkin family was deeply rooted in the Stockholm art scene. Anna Riwkin had married Daniel Brick and opened her first photographic studio. Her brother, Josef Riwkin, founded the publication Spektrum in 1931 together with a group of young intellectuals, including the authors Karin Boye and Erik Mesterton. Shortly after, the editorial team was joined by Gunnar Ekelöf, and several Riwkin siblings were also involved in the publication. Spektrum was described as a forum for literary modernism, psychoanalysis, functionalism, architecture, social policy and politics, film and music. Inspired by European periodicals, the editors wanted to present modern literature, new ideas and lifestyles. It published, for example, Gunnar Myrdal’s thoughts on “the dilemma of social policy”, and special issues on childrearing, architecture and sociology. The magazine was illustrated by, among others, artists GAN, Otto G. Carlsund and Erik Olson. In 1932–1935, Josef Riwkin also operated the Spektrum publishing house, which offered mainly poetry and novels, such as the works of Gunnar Ekelöf.

Anna Riwkin portrayed several Swedish authors who were associated with the magazine, and some of her images were used as illustrations in Spektrum. Her dance photographs were published by Spektrum in 1932 in the book Svensk danskonst. In the 1930s, she began working as a photojournalist, resulting in collaborations with the sexual educator Elise Ottesen-Jensen, and later on also with the writer Astrid Lindgren, with whom she produced several books.

BROR HJORTH - THE GAZE From the 1920s, rapidly-sketched animal portraits became one of Bror Hjorth’s (1894–1968) recurring motifs. With sad, black eyes and drooping mouths, the animals meet our gaze. They seem to be watching us as much as we watch them. These drawings have been interpreted as selfportraits: the artist visited zoos all over Europe and it was as if he saw himself in the animals.

In Bror Hjorth’s practice, modernism meets folk tradition. His style is often coarse, and music is a great source of inspiration. Bror Hjorth went to Paris in 1921, where he lived and worked for the remainder of the decade. He attended the sculptor Antoine Bourdelle’s classes, was inspired by Egyptian and Assyrian art and influenced by Constantin Brâncuşi’s sculptures and Paul Gauguin’s paintings. Hjorth’s bronze Self-portrait was made in Paris in 1929. The artist was thirty-five years old, he seems to gaze inwardly. In the French capital, he became friends with Sven X-et Erixson, whose painting The Sculptor (Portrait of Bror Hjorth) shows his close friend at work.

In 1935, when Bror Hjorth exhibited at the gallery Färg och Form, he was reported to the police by a visitor who found his work obscene. Facing legal action, Hjorth removed four of the lovers groups but left their empty plinths in the gallery as a protest. The state censorship of the exhibition triggered a heated debate and attracted large visitor numbers to the gallery.

BROR HJORTH - THE GAZE From the 1920s, rapidly-sketched animal portraits became one of Bror Hjorth’s (1894–1968) recurring motifs. With sad, black eyes and drooping mouths, the animals meet our gaze. They seem to be watching us as much as we watch them. These drawings have been interpreted as selfportraits: the artist visited zoos all over Europe and it was as if he saw himself in the animals.

In Bror Hjorth’s practice, modernism meets folk tradition. His style is often coarse, and music is a great source of inspiration. Bror Hjorth went to Paris in 1921, where he lived and worked for the remainder of the decade. He attended the sculptor Antoine Bourdelle’s classes, was inspired by Egyptian and Assyrian art and influenced by Constantin Brâncuşi’s sculptures and Paul Gauguin’s paintings. Hjorth’s bronze Self-portrait was made in Paris in 1929. The artist was thirty-five years old, he seems to gaze inwardly. In the French capital, he became friends with Sven X-et Erixson, whose painting The Sculptor (Portrait of Bror Hjorth) shows his close friend at work.

In 1935, when Bror Hjorth exhibited at the gallery Färg och Form, he was reported to the police by a visitor who found his work obscene. Facing legal action, Hjorth removed four of the lovers groups but left their empty plinths in the gallery as a protest. The state censorship of the exhibition triggered a heated debate and attracted large visitor numbers to the gallery.