Skissernas museum in Lund, Sweden was founded in 1934 and is a unique art museum of artistic process and public art that focuses on an artist’s creative process from the first idea until the final sketch. It exhibits the worlds largest collections of sketches, models and preparatory works for Swedish and International public art with over 35,000 works since the early 1900s to date. The museum is located in central Lund and is part of Lund University.
inges idee – Dandy
Today it consists of connected buildings from six different periods. The large exhibition galleries hold modern and contemporary art – from small pencil drawings to colourful , monumental paintings and large-scale plaster sculptures. It features sketches by international artists such as Henri Matisse, Sonia Delaunay, Henry Moore, Fernand Léger. One of Europes foremost sketches by Mexican monumental painters Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros can also be found here.
The ground floor houses the Swedish gallery, the International Gallery and the Mexican collection with exhibits works by Sigrid Hjérten, Isaac Grünewald and Siri Dekert as well as contemporary artists such as Linn Fernström, Gerhard Nordström and Mathias van Arkel. Here you can also find a room called The Birth of the Work of Art.
On the second floor the museum presents a thematic permanent exhibition on Memorials and monuments. In addition to that, the museum also presents a series of new temporary exhibitions every year featuring both contemporary and earlier artists that can be found on this floor. Skissernas museum has extensive archives on public art from Swedish and International newspapers and magazines from the 1930s to present.
We were fortunate enough to attend one of the exhibitions – Memory Matters.
Indré Serpytyté – former NKV MVD MGB KGB building
Memory Matters is an exhibition about collective memory – memory which , unlike that of individual memory , is shared by many people, an entire group or society. Collective memory is often an expression of how a group in a position of power has chosen to recount and represent cultural and historical events , as in official memorials and monuments. But collective memories, like the monuments that embody them, are often contentious. Art provides the possibility of alternative perspectives on history and the expression memories that have been silenced or repressed.
André Cauvusogly – Long Ago Person Found
Memory Matters’ exhibition shows works in various artistic practices from the past ten years, by artists from several different parts of the world. The artists address historiography and memorial culture in different ways. The works engage in a dialogue with contemporary social and political events and with the contexts in which the artists operate – from the silence after the dictatorship in Uruguay or the Soviet era in Lithuania, to expressions of power in post-colonial Angola and South Africa. Some of the artists transform and reinterpret traditional memorial forms such as statues and busts to comment, problematize and sometimes undermine the official history. Others create new narratives by questioning previously accepted histories or by highlighting the circumstances that contribute to the formation of collective memories.
Some of the works become unofficial memorials for people and events for whom such memorials were previously lacking – memorials that oppose oblivion, repression or active erasure to become new bearers of collective memory. The museum and the exhibition become the space in which collective memories are shared instead of the commissioned and official monuments and memorials in public spaces.
Titus Kaphar – Page 4 of Jesfferson’s Farm Book
Iman Isaa’s work—Material
Man Isaa – photo by Caroline Andersson
In this work, the artist investigates the complicated relationship between history, memory , language and monuments. Isaa’s work is based on the ambivalence towards the possibility of translating memories and expressing them in a physical form.
Other programs
Skissernas museum also offers a rich and varied programme for children, teens and adults which includes artists’ talks, lectures , concerts , creative workshops and much more. Every week, the museum offers public guided tours to ticket holders at no additional cost. Families with children can also book private tours in advance. Include in mission is also a lot of written material, very generous.
The museum shop is a ”bookworm’s paradise’’ – here you will find a marvelous selection of exciting and carefully selected books from galleries, museums and publishers worldwide. Also available are cute postcards and design objects for all ages. The selection reflects on the museums focus on art.
Hungry? Then you’re at the right place
If you are hungry the restaurant Pa Skissernas offers a varied range of dishes and is open almost daily for snacks, lunch and dinner. This restaurant is considered one of Lund’s top two restaurants by prestigious Swedish restaurant guide White Guide. Chef Daniel Lundström has also previously been awarded and maintained a Michelin star. På Skissernas also feature an outdoor area which of course is best enjoyed in the spring and summer.
Accessibility & How to get there
Skissernas Museum is easily accessible. Disabled visitors or wheelchair users can easily visit the entire museum except for the bridge in the Swedish Gallery which is reachable via a staircase.
On foot
the museum is within walking distance of Lund Central Station, Lund C. Takes approximately 10-15 minutes walk.
By car
the museum has no parking of its own, but there are plenty of metered parking spaces within the vicinity.
By train
Regional and local trains stop at Lund C every hour.
By bus
Take the city bus line 1 from Lund C and get off at the Biskopshuset stop to reach the museum through the park, 2 min – or at the Sölvegatan stop just behind the museum.