Sleepless Nights

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In the 1980s, the Swedish art scene changed radically. A new artist generation who looked beyond the national borders emerged and broke away from previous artistic and political narratives. New media and materials were introduced, and hierarchies of style and genre were turned on their head.

The 1980s were characterised by financial crisis and fear of HIV and AIDS. But the art market was sizzling, the alternative art scene was lively, and the cold war was coming to an end. This contradictory pivotal point between the political 1970s and the artistically terser 1990s left its mark on the Moderna Museet collection. It includes works by some of the international megastars but, more importantly, by a large number of famous and unknown contemporary Swedish artists and a few older oeuvres who influenced the Zeitgeist.

In the 1980s, a number of remarkable women artists also emerged in Sweden and the Nordic region. “Sleepless Nights” revolves around them. The exhibition title was inspired by Teresa Wennberg’s large video installation “Nuit Blanche” from 1983. Wennberg is one of many women artists who tried and experimented with video and computer art, which was still in its early phase.

The exhibition “Sleepless Nights – From the 1980s in the Moderna Museet collection” will be on view at Moderna Museet in Stockholm 28 February 2023 – 14 January 2024.

All the works in “Sleepless Nights” can be viewed here.

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