Work Text:
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
MBB: Dear Analinda, what a pleasure to welcome you back to our little salon once again.
AB: The pleasure is entirely mine, as always.
MBB: And you bring news concerning the Swedish art scandal “Lag om Sedlighet i Konst” of 1869. [Editor's note: Dear ladies, further details regarding this outrageous affair can be found in the links at the end of the image series.]
AB: Indeed. During a recent inventory assessment, another collection of paintings was discovered in an external storage facility belonging to the Norrbottens museum in Luleå.
MBB: After all this time? And in a regional museum of all places?
AB: Apparently the works were transferred there from Gothenburg during the First World War; and there they remained for more than a century, almost entirely unnoticed. Under ordinary circumstances, they likely would have been overlooked yet again. Fortunately, several of the responsible curators had already been sensitized through your publication on the case. A number of the crates, incidentally, still bore old administrative restriction markings.
MBB: What an extraordinary discovery. What scale are we speaking of?
AB: More than sixty works. And remarkably, they are in exceptionally good condition. Only a small number will require restoration.
MBB: Have you already been able to identify the artists?
AB: Unfortunately only in a handful of cases. Most of the works are either unsigned or were catalogued under male pseudonyms — in order to circumvent the exhibition ban. In addition, the relevant registry documents were largely destroyed in a depot fire during the winter of 1944.
MBB: How unpleasantly precise patriarchal history can sometimes be.
AB: Quite.
MBB: Will the works become part of the major travelling exhibition?
AB: Unfortunately not anymore. The exhibition tour already begins this autumn, and the planning is too far advanced. Which is precisely why I am so grateful that you are willing to present the works here in your forum in advance.
MBB: The pleasure is entirely ours. But let us speak about the paintings themselves. What awaits us?
AB: The majority of the works once again belong to late Impressionism, though several already display clear tendencies toward Expressionism.
MBB: And thematically?
AB: Natural settings, predominantly. Summer landscapes, winter landscapes, clearings, bodies of water. Fewer animals this time. Considerably more vegetation instead.
MBB: And naturally the naked female body.
AB: Naturally.
MBB: Several of the works are once again astonishingly explicit. One immediately feels tempted to take up the brush oneself.
AB: Yes. And remarkably assured in that explicitness. One senses that many of these women were far ahead of their own time.
MBB: Not to mention perhaps our own.
AB: Perhaps especially our own.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
For the ladies who are inclined towards the fine arts and want to inspire their minds and flesh, we recommend the following articles by Analinda Byfroest on the Swedish art scandal of 1869:
FREEDOM FOR OUR NORDIC VULVAS - The Censored Works of Female Painters in Scandinavian Art, 1869–1903
FREEDOM FOR OUR NORDIC VULVAS - REALISM
FREEDOM FOR OUR NORDIC VULVAS - NATURALISM
FREEDOM FOR OUR NORDIC VULVAS - IMPRESSIONISM
FREEDOM FOR OUR NORDIC VULVAS - EARLY EXPRESSIONISM
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++