Carl Johan de Geer / The Big Misconception. Detail, from the exhibition at Bildmuseet, 2019
Carl Johan de Geer / The Big Misconception. From the exhibition at Bildmuseet, 2019
Carl Johan de Geer / The Big Misconception. From the exhibition at Bildmuseet, 2019.
Ever since his debut in the 1960s, Carl Johan De Geer (b. 1938) has been a prominent figure in Swedish culture. Innovative, provocative and brilliantly versatile, he has worked as an artist, designer, film maker, photographer, scenographer and author. But from the start he wanted to become a textile designer.
Bildmuseet's exhibition The Big Misconception presents Carl Johan De Geer's textile works. Fabrics and pattern sketches are on display together with photographs from the same period.
After his studies in graphic design in the beginning of the 1960s, De Geer started to produce large patterned, imaginatively expressive prints in strong and contrasting combinations of colours - a revolt against the discrete drab brown ideals of the time and the aesthetic values of his childhood. With shape and colour, he wanted to affect the whole society.
"It was part of an idea we had at that time: that it was possible to create a new and better world without war with the help of patterns, strong colours and music. A misconception."
The exhibition Carl Johan de Geer / The Big Misconception was produced and curated by Bildmuseet and has since gone on tour in Sweden. The exhibition was on show at Kulturen in Lund 4 April - 30 August 2020 and will in 2021 be shown at Thielska Galleriet, Stockholm.
