Edited by Estelle af Malmborg
Texts by Berndt Arell, Marianne Lindberg De Geer,
Estelle af Malmborg, Mårten Snickare
Design by Sandra Praun
2014, English, Swedish, hardcover
122 pages, 17.5 x 23.5 cm
ISBN 9789198157314
Metamorphoses, illusory effects, theatricality, and artificiality. Overloaded ornamentality, bombast, sentimentality, breaches of style, and contrasts. Spiritual and Dionysian ecstasy, dreams, and visions. The world is a stage and life is a dream. A fascination with death, or beauty in death. All this and much more can be accommodated in the word ‘baroque’.
A baroque sensibility finds its expression in many different ways in the art of our times. Barockt focusses on certain currents in contemporary art that coincide with the overarching artistic themes of the seventeenth century. While several of the contemporary artists featured here can hardly be labeled ‘baroque’ in the traditional sense, what unites their work is a strength of visual expression and an interest in questions regarding the human condition, often from a postcolonial perspective. Published in collaboration with Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, Sweden.