Room 2

Tuija Lindström, Dawid, Gunnar Smoliansky, Robert Mapplethorpe and others

Narrator: The 1980s were a pivotal period for photography. From being entirely dominated by the documentary tradition and ideology, a new strategy emerged in the 1980s. The focus became more poetic and personal. Many artists, on the other hand, began exploring colour photography and staged images in large formats.
 
Tuija Lindström worked for several years on soft, black-and-white portraits and studies of women’s bodies. This developed into the conceptual series “The Girls at Bull’s Pond” from 1991. It consists of monumental photos of clothes irons side by side with studies of women bathing. They were friends of the photographer. Part of the work consists of the film The Girls at Bull’s Pond. It was acquired for the Moderna Museet collection this year. It is part of the work and is shown here.
 
Tuija Lindström was a professor at the Department of Photography at Gothenburg University in 1992 to 2002. She was an important role model and mentor for generations of Swedish and Nordic photographers. The circle around Tuija Lindström also included the photographers Dawid and Gunnar Smoliansky. They are represented here with their famous series “ROST” and “Promenade Pictures”.
 
The works of Tuija Lindström are placed next to works by the American photographer Robert Mapplethorpe in this room. Early in his career, Mapplethorpe took portraits of close friends. But his growing reputation made him the photographer of choice among New York’s cultural elite, including the artist Andy Warhol.
 
In his youth, Mapplethorpe lived with the poet and rock musician Patti Smith. She writes about it in her book “Just Kids”, from 2010. A few different periods can be identified in Mapplethorpe’s output. In the 1970s, he photographed gay subcultures. He himself was part of this scene. In the early 1980s, athletic bodies were a recurring theme, often with male black models. Towards the end of his life, he focused on flowers and sculptures. Many of his subjects were controversial and sparked debate in the USA.