Day 41_Gothenburg museums

Museums are usually closed on Mondays.  When I worked at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Mondays were always interesting.  That was the day when patrons, or Hollywood royalty (entertainers), or the artists themselves, would come to the closed museum for a private visit.  My Monday visit to Gothenburg required a Thursday return in order to see two museums.  The Art Museum mainly includes Scandanavian artists, many of whom I had never heard of because they are only regionally known.  It was interesting to see how many had moved to France and Germany and were exposed to art movements like Impressionism and German Expressionism, then returned  home to put their own spin on the representation.  One of my favorite rooms was from a self-portrait collection.  In the 1920s, a young postal worker who appreciated modern art met many of 20th century's greatest painters when they were still unknown.  He collected their self-portraits, some 50 odd number, and donated them to the museum after his death.  I find it fascinating to see how people portray themselves.   I don't know that many of us really know what we look like or are honest in our assessment.  For me, caricatures often don't look like the person I think I am.

The City Museum was also very good.  It showed the history of Gothenburg from the Viking era to their vision of the city in 2050.  A Viking ship (found in the 1930s in layers of mud) is amazingly still in tact for being over 1500 years old.  The change from Viking to Christian rule around 1050 completely changed the culture, its religion and society seen through its architecture and artifacts.  Models of the city with its ramparts and fortifications during the on-going wars with the Danes (for nearly 1000 years!) revealed their jogging footprint in the canals today.  Nineteenth century emigration was highlighted, with lists of families leaving Sweden for the U.S.  I didn't see any Edstroms, but our name is rare.  The city of the future in 2050 highlighted the existing landscape with the anticipated new sustainable city.  Pulling the city across the bay and linking it to the island where businesses like Volvo are located, showed mixed use housing, green roofs and a clean bay, anticipating that the industrial role of the city will diminish.  Photoshop images showed how the city will keep its historic buildings and ancient city walls and weave the new design into the old infrastucture.

Having been in Sweden nearly a week, I have had the chance to really notice things, like looking at people.  My father is 100% Swedish and I never really knew what "Swedish" people looked like.  I see my father's face on so many men here, faces I did not see in the other countries.