Moderna Museet

We had a really nice day yesterday. As my boyfriend, Kai, and I are both currently putting a lot of effort into job hunting I feel like we could easily get bogged down worrying about the future, so I feel like it's really important for us to also get out and enjoy ourselves, so we remember why we actually came here in the first place.

First we met Kai's friend Eddie for lunch. Eddie gave me a lot of help when I was last year, and has been a very good friend to both of us. We went for lunch at Waan Thai, opposite Sankt Eriksplan station - when I was here in September this restaurant quickly became my favourite restaurant in Stockholm. My only complaint is that the amount of food they serve is ridiculously large!

After that we went to Moderna Museet, which is a gallery I highly recommend to anyone either living in Stockholm or visiting here. I went there when I came for a visit in June last year, and absolutely loved it. It's located on Skeppsholmen, a very beautiful island in the center of Stockholm. It's very green, with lovely views of Södermalm, and is very peaceful. Last time it was in this area I noticed that you can be in the center of Stockholm but it can still be tranquil and quiet, which is such a huge contrast to London!

The current exhibition is on post-modern sculpture, and I really enjoyed it. This show takes up one room, and the way the work is laid out is great, because as well as being able to appreciate each piece individually you can also take a step back and look at everything at once, almost turning the entire room into one giant piece of art.

Another thing I found was that the permanent collection is rotated - although there were some pieces I saw during my previous visit, there were also pieces that were not there last time. I really think this is a positive thing - it can be a bit disappointing to visit a gallery and find there's only one room of new work, especially if there's an entrance fee. 

As well as having work by artists who are well-known throughout the world, such as Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, and Jackson Pollock, Moderna Museet also has work by a large number of Swedish and Nordic artists who perhaps I would not have heard about otherwise. Yesterday I noticed a painting by a Danish artist, Harald Giersing, who I had not heard of before, but whose work I'm keen to look into further. 

In the piece I saw, and also in some of his other paintings that I've since looked at, I can see where the artist started to paint but then changed his mind and worked over it, which is something very relevant to my own drawings at the moment, as I'm working with building up layers, smudging mistakes and working over them. If and when I move back to concentrating on painting I think I could draw on his work even more. Thanks Moderna Museet!

Next month there will be a new exhibition of work by Louise Bourgeois, an artist who is a particular favourite of mine because of her use of textiles. I picked up a flyer yesterday, and some of the work that will be shown has never been publicly shown before, which is quite exciting. On Fridays after 6pm you can also go to the museum for free, which will probably be quite convenient once I'm working.

I'm really looking forward to seeing the new show next month, and to many more trips to Moderna Museet in the future.