Swedish-American Art
Introduction
This section of our catalogue Topics in American Art is devoted to the topic "Swedish-American Art." Articles and essays specific to this topic published in our Resource Library are listed at the beginning of the section. Clicking on titles takes readers directly to these articles and essays. The date at the end of each title is the Resource Library publication date.
Following online resources is information about offline resources including museums, DVDs, and paper-printed books, journals and articles.
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Articles and essays from Resource Library in chronological order:
Colors of the West: The Paintings of Birger Sandzén; with article by Christine Giles (5/14/10)
Geology and the Art of Birger Sandzén; essay by James Welsh and Donald Myers (12/15/09)
Swedish-American Works from the Hillstrom Collection (12/14/09)
Drawn from Life: The Art of George Carlson; essay by James H. Nottage (3/28/08)
Simple Pleasures: The Art of Martha Cahoon, including essay by Cindy Nickerson (6/1/01)
Claes Oldenburg: Prints and Multiples (10/23/99)
(above: Entrance, American Swedish Institute, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Photo: John Hazeltine. © 2012 John Hazeltine)
From other websites:
The website of the Swedish Council of America as of 2013 has a page containing links to dozens of arts and crafts articles plus book reviews from Sweden in America in pdf format. Categories include: "Cartoons & Comics," "Ceramics," "Decorative Arts," " Fabric Arts," "Folk Art," "Glass," "Knives," "Painting and Drawing," "Photography," "Sculpture" and "Woodworking." Many of the articles concern Swedish-American artists. Accessed August, 2015.
Art Institute of Chicago offers online selected older catalogues linked to their exhibition history, including from 1920 "Paintings by American Painters of Swedish Descent," Nov. 16-Nov. 30, 1920. Accessed August, 2015.
Eva Stina Bender's Swedish Sojourns, an exhibit held April 3 - May 15, 2010 at the Demuth Museum. Accessed August, 2015.
Swedish-American Art in Minnesota: 1850-1945 is 2026 a Gemini 3 Conversational Deep Research Report which says: "The migration of over 1.25 million Swedes to the United States between 1850 and 1930 represents a pivotal chapter in the cultural synthesis of the American Midwest, particularly within the state of Minnesota. This demographic shift was catalyzed by a confluence of factors, including the devastating famines of the 1860s in regions like Småland and a rigid social hierarchy that offered limited mobility to the peasant class. Upon arrival in Minnesota, these immigrants encountered a landscape that bore a haunting resemblance to their homeland -- a terrain of undulating uplands, dense hardwood forests, and a vast network of lakes that mirrored the lacustrine beauty of Sweden. Between 1850 and 1945, the artistic expression of these settlers evolved from the rudimentary, utilitarian crafts required for frontier survival into a sophisticated body of fine art that bridged the gap between Swedish peasant traditions and American modernism. This evolution was not merely an aesthetic journey but a profound social mechanism used by the Swedish-American community to negotiate their identity, facilitate assimilation, and assert their cultural sophistication in a frequently hostile nativist environment."Accessed 2/26
Institutions with a focus on Swedish-American Art:
Notable Swedish-American artists:
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