Gallery 01:18

FOR EVER AND EVER, AMEN

Art as a platform for social debate and critique of power dates back to the late 1960s in Sweden. The role of the artist and the way art was exhibited changed fundamentally in the experimental and politically radical spirit that endured well into the 1970s. Institutions were challenged and male dominance gradually began to give way. The works shown here reflect this desire for change and examine power positions, a theme that we also see in Maurizio Cattelan’s practice.

PUSS is an underground magazine published from 1968 to 1974. It ferociously attacked everything and everyone in pithy, satirical drawings and texts. PUSS was viewed by many as a leftist publication, questioning capitalism and U.S. imperialism, but it was not afraid of also ridiculing the left. It was considered obscene due to its use of nudity and sex, and illustrations such as Lena Svedberg’s caricatureof minister of finance Gunnar Sträng in an outhouse. In other works, such as the triptych shown here, Svedberg employs religious elements for tension. Her style is expressive, and the writhing bodies have a palpable fleshiness.

The interweaving of religion and politics is also present in Cilla Ericson and Hanns Karlewski’s twelve posters in the series Our Father, named after what is probably the best-known Christian prayer. The lines of the text are combined with urgent visual motifs. Poster number twelve shows a nuclear explosion, reminding us of Hiroshima. The text reads: For ever and ever, Amen.