Party for Öyvind. Öyvind Fahlström & Friends
16 February – 1 May 2022

This large group exhibition focuses on the work of one of the most innovative and proactive artists of the 20th century: Öyvind Fahlström (1928-1976) created an oeuvre that broke boundaries in every respect during his short creative period. This unique exhibition comprises fine art, poetry, theatre, literature, music, dance, and film, and so reflects the enormous range and breadth of expression of the international network of artists that inspired, and was inspired by, this singular Swedish artist.

In 1961 Fahlström travelled to the USA on a one-year stipend together with his partner and collaborator, Barbro Östlihn, whom he had married the previous year. They were introduced to the New York art scene by Billy Klüver, a Swedish engineer who worked for Bell Laboratories and was the founder of Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.), an institution set up to assist artists with the technical aspects of their work. The couple’s first friends in New York were Patty and Claes Oldenburg. Fahlström, moreover, was able to take over Robert Rauschenberg’s studio and so became a neighbour of Jasper Johns. Suddenly at the centre of America’s rapidly changing art scene, he experienced the rise of Pop Art and happenings at first hand. Barbro and Öyvind stayed on in the city even after the stipend ended and remained a fixture of the New York art scene right up to Öyvind’s death in 1976.

Fahlström was also a poet and in 1953 published the world's first Manifesto for Concrete Poetry. He also wrote plays, took part in performances, happenings, and theatrical stagings, and, collaborating closely with his wife, created an artistic oeuvre consisting of paintings, a vast array of prints, and three-dimensional installations that range in style from the ‘peinture’ to the ‘comic’ and address all the political, social, and societal issues of the day.

Party for Öyvind reflects a period that was shaped largely by the challenges of the aftermath of the war, but that also offered unique opportunities for a new brand of openness and playfulness in art as a younger generation sought to throw out the old order and carve out a lifestyle of their own. The emphasis now was on joie de vivre, hope in the future, the right to one’s own identity and sexuality, and the primacy of self-expression in art, music, literature, and poetry.