“Liljevalchs painting: opting out of social criticism”
“the art gallery not to include works by burning timeliness”
“”Francis Bacon has the only one solution to his problem,” writes Göran Tunström in an essay on Lena Cronqvist, ”while Siri Derkert and Vera Nilsson is trying to solve problems in new and new for each motive. The observation encapsulates quite well Cronqvist 60– and 70–century. In förortsmadonnorna (1969-1970), and the images from his time in a psychiatric clinic (1971), portrayed the man both as isolated and as part of society. There is a vulnerability in these images, which cuts right through the present.”
“the Lack of resources and humanity in health care, life in the suburbs, the worry, the stress and social vulnerability. All this is portrayed in the Cronqvist early paintings, not of an artist who set out to make ”critical art”, but as a lived experience of the painting. The curator choose to work with such a burning topicality?”
“the Decision to only exhibit paintings from the past few decades, on the grounds that the Cronqvist early work was shown at Liljevalchs in 1994. It is almost twenty years ago. I had just started high school. And today’s young people, will not count as an audience?”
“Let’s try another train of thought. Stockholm has a kulturborgarråd who want to micromanage the culture, and the censoring of public art that she finds displeasing. We have a director who is rewarded with millions in additional funding for its populist line, and get the praise of the same kulturborgarråd to operate an art gallery in the international class, despite the fact that it obviously is not true. One who at any price want to affect, one that bends over backwards to please. What is its impact in the work with an exhibition? Is it possible to show the art at Liljevalchs? Why do the pr-moderaten Michael Storåkers in the directory (and why is he calling Cronqvist for ”mother contemporary”)? Such I can not help but to ponder.”
“very Well then. What is it that we see? The exhibition is thematically hung after the motif that has occupied Cronqvist at different times: self-portrait, self-portrait with dolls, self-portraits with fågelkadaver. The image is of an artist who struggles on in the studio, and over the years it has developed a dexterity with paint and brush that brings to mind Peter Dahl. It is a painting that is technically driven, but which offers few surprises.”
“Take the series of self-portraits from recent years, which are hanging in the mittsalen. In these images, there is no symbolic props, just the artist’s image against a monochrome background, pointing back towards the painting as color and texture. Here are both of Bacon (man, that meat on a hanger of the bones), and Derkert (”I want to wreak havoc with the material, ravage, ravage, ravage!”). But he slashed most of their paintings, and she enjoyed every movement to vibrate with life. Of Cronqvist, I look at the many ways the opposite. A way of painting without thinking, and without real feeling. A production for production’s sake.”
“the Same with the big änglamålningarna in the south hall. It seems clear to me that when Cronqvist repeat the same or similar subjects in 10 paintings, so she reaches a successful outcome in 1 or 2. It would, in other words not damaged to sift. Which is yet another argument for a retrospective would have been preferable.”
“Certainly there is here the paintings, the occasional self-portrait and images of relatives, which are of concern. But everything happens in a bubble, away from time and society. What happened to the artist who idolized Frida Kahlo, and who wanted to paint hudlöst and open to the public as ”Siri and Vera”?”
“When Cronqvist in the 70’s was in a self-absorbed period, so she turned her gaze towards the ground, and painted the grass and the rotting leaves. So, she took on. A similar maneuver today would be a quiet desire.”
“Lena Cronqvist. Painting, sculpture”
“Liljevalchs konsthall”
“through January 6”