The cultural history of politics in Swedish contemporary art.

Abstract

Today Sweden is seen as a welfare state yet it hasn't always been so. Not until 1995, the GDP per capita rose by 50 per cent in Sweden and it rose until 2016. This growth is higher than in most other OECD countries. A welfare state like that without participating actively in different wars one could think that Swedish artists have all the conditions to become established internationally. Yet, I believe that Swedish artists that are known internationally are not that many. One reason could be that Sweden's political and sociological history differs from other European countries. In this thesis, I question and explore on a pragmatic level if our political climate has been influencing my own, Swedish artists and art business from establishing internationally. One part of the thesis is having the French sociologist Bourdieu's theories and the Swedish political project from the 1930s “The home of the people' as an analytical framework. The second part discusses how this project has made an impact both politically and sociologically on the contemporary Swedish art scene. The last part will discuss how the Swedish artists and galleries manage towards an international art market, with a starting point in the Western world. The thesis mixes interviews, art history and theories from different art professionals, philosophers and artists.

Keywords: Swedish art history, Swedish artists, galleries, art business models, Pierre Bourdieu.