The making of a collection

Chief Curator Fredrik Liew talks about how a collection is built in layers — each generation of curators adding, interpreting, and revising, always in dialogue with history, the present, and with an eye to the future.

Fredrik Liew: My name is Fredrik Liew, and I’m the chief curator at Moderna Museet.
 
My role in our work with the collection is to create the conditions that allow the museum’s experts—the collection’s curators—to propose new works to add to the collection and ways to present them to the public. I’m also responsible for preparing the decisions that the museum makes about both acquisitions and exhibitions.
 
It’s worth remembering that the museum’s collection is the result of the work of several generations of curators. Today, I collaborate closely with seven colleagues at the museum.
 
There is no cheat sheet for building a collection. Decisions aren’t based on neutral data analyses or made with the support of some algorithm. We engage in long conversations where we interpret and evaluate all the art that we see, based on the experiences and knowledge we bring with us. We always strive to acquire the best artworks, and the ones that we consider to be the most relevant for our unique collection. Our wish list is always longer than what we can realize with the resources and capacity we have at hand, which often means we need to make difficult prioritizations.
 
Opinions abound whenever assessments and choices are made concerning art. Critics have their view, and you, as part of the audience, have your own. This is how it should be. The art historians of the future will appraise our contributions, and the curators who come after us will add to and adjust the history we’ve created, just as we do when we revise the art-historical narrative that previous curators have left us. That is how a collection like Moderna Museet’s materialises: over time and in dialogue between professionals. We who work here have been given great trust and responsibility.
 
Part of that responsibility is to display, share, discuss, and motivate our choices. What are we doing? Why do we think it’s important? The two group shows and the exhibition showcasing new acquisitions now on display are all examples of that.
 
Moderna Museet’s collection encompasses about 140,000 artworks, and we can only display a fraction of them at any particular moment in time. But we frequently change things around and open new exhibitions, so it’s always worth coming back.
 
We value dialogue with our visitors. If you have any questions or thoughts you’d like to share, I want to hear them.  You can write what’s on your mind in a form you’ll find with our hosts in the foyer. I promise to answer every question I receive to the best of my ability.