Andrea Kollnitz

Italian-Argentine artist Leonor Fini (1907-1996) can be seen as the original artist-celebrity; her self-mythologization was promulgated by some of the 20th century’s most prominent photographers, from Henri Cartier-Bresson to Dora Maar. Exploring her self-fashioning and dressing-up practices in light of recent theories of performativity, this book highlights how Fini’s extension of artistic creative practices, from painted artworks to her self-creation through costumes, masks and fashion, allowed her to become a living artwork to be created and recreated on daily basis. Applying a multisensory methodology, the book explores Fini’s personal theatricality, photographic self-portraits and self-transformative, genderbending, transgressive dressing-up games in relation to surrealist practices, showcasing the hybrid identities that made up Fini's overall character. In three thematic sections - exploring her theatrical performances at balls, her self-fashioning in photographic and painted portraits, and her becoming-other through dressing-up - the book charts the artist's personal and creative development, the interaction between her paintings and self-creation and her increasing self-empowerment through dressing-up. With over 100 visually-striking colour illustrations, the book analyses and highlights some of Fini's most outstanding performances together with her paintings and self-portraits. Kollnitz argues that the way these identities were represented in the celebrity press compromised Fini’s critical reception as an artist, and how more broadly patriarchal objectification of fashionable women artists has the potential to jeopardise their professional agency. In contrast, this book showcases Fini’s self-fashioning as a tool of artistic and personal empowerment as well as an intrinsic part of her art production. In doing so, the book gives voice to the significance of self-mythologisation for artists to whom identity is fluid and plural.

The research anthology The Halmstad Group- Pioneers of Swedish Surrealism is the first in Sweden to highlight the Halmstad Group from an art science perspective. The anthology brings together text by researchers Andrea Kollnitz, Helene Fuchs, Johan Zimsen and Kristoffer Noheden. All of them present new facts that both build upon- and partially refute- previous stoeries about the Halmstad Gruop and its art. The Halmstad Group is founded in connection with the art and industrial exhibition Halmstad 1929. With great curiosity for modernism, the young artists who under the name the Halmstad Gruop, bring surrealism to Sweden: Sven Jonson, Waldermar Lorentzon, Stellan Mörner, Axel Olson, Erik Olson, and Esaias Thorén. Surrealism is born in Paris 1924 in tandem with the publication of the first surrealist manifesto, Manifeste du Surréalisme. Stellan Mörner brings it to Sweden where the Halmstad Group is inspired, and in the 1930sincreasingly explore what it means to express one´s senses and inner dream world in painting. The group now develops a distinct from of surrealism swtemming from costy, sea, and agricultural landscapes. The special west coast light they depict becomes their signature internationally. Then and there the stories about the Halmstad Group begin. It is with pride and joy that Mjellby Art Museum, a hundred years after the birth of surrealism, welcomes curious readers to take part in today´s research based interpretations of the life and work of the Halmstad Groups.

Forskningsantologin Halmstadgruppen- Den svenska surrealismens pionjärer är den första i Sverige som belyser Halmstadgruppen ur konstvetenskapligt perspektiv. Antologin samlar texter av konstvetarna Andrea Kollnitz, Helen Fuchs, Johan Zimsen och konst- och bitvis vederlägger- tidigare berättelser om Halmstadgruppen och dess konst. Halmstadgruppen bildades i samband med konst- och industriutställningen Halmstad 1929. Nyfikenheten på modernismen är stor hos de unga konstnärer som under namnet Halmstadgruppen kom att föra surrealismen till Sverige: Sven Jonson, Waldemar Lorentzon, Stellan Mörner, Axel Olson, Erik Olson och Esaias Thorén. Surrealismen föds i Paris 1924. Då publiceras det första surrealistiska manifestet, Manifeste du Surréalisme. Stellan Mörner tar det med till Sverige, där Halmstadgruppen inspireras och på 1930-talet alltmer utforskar vad det innebär att gestalta sina sinnen och inre drömvärldar i måleri. Gruppen utvecklar nu en särpräglad surrealism med spår från kust, hav och jordbrukslandskap. Internationellt framhålls det speciella västkustljus som utmärker deras måleri. Då och där börjar berättelserna om Halmstadgruppen att skapas. Det är med glädje och stolthet Mjellby konstmuseum, hundra år efter surrealismens födelse , hälsar nyfikna läsare välkomna att ta del av våran egen tids forskningsbaserade tolkning av Halmstadgruppen måleri och historia.

Axel Törneman (1880-1925) var aktiv som konstnär mitt under den moderna konstens genombrott. Trots sin relativt korta levnad hann han både uppleva och vara en del av de dramatiska kulturella skiften som präglade 1900-talets början. Med Törneman som portalfigur kartlägger denna antologi de tidiga konst- och idéströmningar som idag samlas under begreppet modernism. I hans måleri finns nämligen viktiga nycklar till förståelsen av modernismens utveckling i såväl Sverige som Europa. Genom att växla mellan den biografiska närläsningen och det större, internationella sammanhanget blir Törnemans liv och verk ett sätt att koppla samman modernismens mångbottnade rötter. Huvudredaktörer är Kurt Almqvist och Svante Helmbaek Tirén.