Surrealism at Mjellby Art Museum

Last month we visited Mjellby Art Museum, the museum of the Halmstad Group, to watch the Fall 2009 exhibition Swedish surrealism.

After a fika from Café Blå in Mjellby Art Museum’s beautiful private garden, we went inside to view the paintings — all available as postcards for 10 SEK in the reception area.

Since visitors weren’t allowed to photograph the paintings I shot other things instead. Above, a work station for kids.

TV room, where visitors could watch a film about world famous surrealist Salvador Dalí’s painting Wilhelm Tells gåta.

All kids were encouraged to paint moustache on Mona Lisa.

The result!

Of the pantings I especially enjoyed Erik Olsons’ Drömmar och syner vid havet (Månlandningen). Translated Dreams and visions by the sea, the colorful painting with the sea and the sky in the background features a bikini-clad woman without arms and legs, a life buoy, sea gulls, a piano, a man about to climb a stage, a globe, a left eye, a chair with human legs, a gun, the backside of a man, and different furniture.

Ödesnatt (Waldemar Lorentzon, 1939) is built on the double meaning of things and opens up for the viewers own interpretations. As the cloudy sky can also represent water, you will either see a desert or a coast landscape in Halland. The window in the sky opens a passage to a parallel universe.

Stellan Mörner’s Drömland (Dreamland) belongs to a set of paintings he did during the break of war. Filled with objects that reflect the artist’s person, his work is a performance where the objects are the actors. Mörner later worked with theater scenographies on Dramaten in Stockholm and renewed the Swedish theater scene with his surrealist image vision.

These three paintings stood out the most to me.

You can easily travel to Mjellby Art Museum by car (8 minutes from Halmstad city). Follow the directions towards “Steninge” and about 7 km outside Halmstad city you’ll find the signs “Mjällby” and “Konstmuseum”. Entrance costs 60 SEK (about $8,6) for adults, 40 SEK for seniors and students, and nothing for those under 20. (I said I was under 20 to get free entry; good for my wallet, although not for my travel karma!)

For more information about the museum, visit Mjellby art museum.