Swedish Grace

For our tenth selling exhibition and our third collaboration with Jackson Design, Galerie56 is pleased to present Swedish Grace. The exhibition is a succinct survey of how the past can inform the future, and explores the expression of democratic themes in design. Swedish Grace proudly features important and exemplary works by stanchions of Swedish design including Gunnar Asplund, Axel Einar Hjorth, Anna Petrus, Uno Åhrén, and more.

Bookended by two World Wars, this period of Swedish design celebrated a universal theme—shared knowledge through literacy. In 1928, Gunnar Asplund completed the landmark Stockholm City Library. It was one of the first libraries in the world to employ the new open-shelf system. The rotunda allowed visitors to access books independently without having to ask a librarian for assistance. Fittingly, the structure was a new type of civic building for the city—a utilitarian and inviting paean to the idea that information should be shared by all. It is this same principle that inspired Lee F. Mindel, FAIA, to have a gallery with 80 feet of windows, making art accessible to all who pass by Galerie56.

In 1927, Sweden was the first European country to be represented with a solo exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Titled ‘The Swedish Exhibition of Decorative Arts’, the exhibition gained unprecedented attendance and featured the monumental table envisioned by the female designer Anna Petrus. Nearly a century later, this important table returns to New York for the first time at Galerie56.