Swedish acquisitions 2021

In 2021, the government allocated an extra SEK 25 million to Moderna Museet for the purchase of art to support the Swedish art scene during the corona pandemic. The acquisitions continued throughout 2021. Proposals poured in via an open invitation. Professional artists, gallerists and exhibition organizers could submit purchase proposals and also had the opportunity to present works in portfolio exhibitions organized by the Swedish National Arts Council and the Swedish Association of Art Consultants. Decisions on purchased works were made by the Chief Curator together with the museum's curators responsible for the collection and the director of Moderna Museet Malmö.

The 373 purchased works are now collected in the book Swedish Acquisitions 2021. Each of the 169 artists is presented in a separate spread with texts by Moderna Museet's curators and with selected images of the works. In an introductory text, Moderna Museet's chief curator Gitte Ørskou describes the Swedish Acquisitions 2021 project, and in each in-depth essay, two researchers, Mattias Danbolt (professor of art and cultural studies at the University of Copenhagen) and Katarina Wadstein MacLeod (professor of art history at Stockholm University), describe the development of Moderna Museet's collection from different perspectives.

The project in numbers:

• 373 works were purchased by 169 artists and artist groups
• 127 artistships were acquired via an open call
• 113 of the artworks were new to the Moderna Museet collection.

The artists who were purchased have been active both in and outside Sweden, as well as in Sápmi. The youngest artist was 27 years old and the oldest was 91 years old. The works were made between 1962 and 2021.

Editor: Asrin Haidari, Fredrik Liew, Andreas Nilsson, Anna Tellgren, Gitte Ørskou

Binding: softcover

Language: Swedish/English

Graphic design: Aron Kullander-Östling

Size: 21.7 × 28 cm

Number of pages: 412

Number of images: approx. 400

Published in collaboration with Art & Theory Publishing

ISBN 978-91-988705-4-1