a carpet /tapestry, 'Utan titel' ('untitled') flat weave and knotted pile, c 202 x 158 cm, signed AB MMF MLE
(AB Märta Måås-Fjetterström, Marie-Louise Ekman). Textile Artwork of the Year 2002 for AB Märta Måås-Fjetterström. Made in a unique edition by the weaver Birgit Svensson
Märta Måås-Fjetterströms studio, Båstad, Agardhsgatan, 2002
The Swedish Consulate, One Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza, New York, 2002.
Liljevalchs konsthall, Stockholm, 'Märta flyger igen! 90 år med Märta Måås-Fjetterström', 2 October 2009 - 6 January 2010.
Märta Måås-Fjetterström, Angelica Persson, "Märta flyger igen! : 90 år med Märta Måås-Fjetterström", 2009, illustrated on plate in colour p. 20.
The present work is the first "Textile Artwork of the Year" in a series of a total of 11 entirely unique textiles between the years 2002-2014.
Marie-Louise Ekman's artwork "Untitled" from 2002 was the starting point and spark for a whole new era in the history of Märta Måås-Fjetterström AB. Between 2002 and 2014, invited contemporary artists each created a unique work at the historic weaving factory in Båstad.
It all started in 2001, when the MMF's prestigious Art Council was established. The council's main task: to select the artists who were invited to create the 'Textile Artwork of the Year', which was woven in one piece at Märta Måås-Fjetterström AB in Båstad.
Between 2002 and 2014, eleven unique textile artworks have been created in the studio in Båstad:
Marie-Louise Ekman "Utan titel" 2002,
Elis Ernst Eriksson "Fluktaren" 2003,
Jockum Nordström "Kusken" 2004,
Maria Miesenberger "Hjärnmatta" 2005,
Jens Fänge "Upstairs" 2006,
Charlotte Gyllenhammar "På mattan" 2007,
Cecilia Edefalk "Double White Venus" 2008,
HM Queen Margrethe II of Denmark "Kustlandskap" 2009,
Olafur Eliasson "The green glass carpet" 2010,
Ylva Ogland Snöfrid "Distillary Pictogram" 2012,
Karin Mamma Andersson "Atlanten" 2014.
The eleven works by AB Märta Måås-Fjetterström mentioned above are currently in private and institutional art collections. Cecilia Edefalk's work "Double White Venus" (2008) is part of the Government Office's art collection in Stockholm and was purchased by the Swedish Arts Council in 2008.
Marie-Louise Ekman is without a doubt one of Sweden's most eccentric artists. The consistency in her expression is striking, with a distinctive language that is unmistakably her own.
Ekman's artistry is timeless and continuously relevent. She is a leading and influential artist who often depicts everyday environments, but does not align herself with the absurdist and surrealist art forms. She travels unhindered over artistic buondaries and often ustilises art historical references, incorporating them with pop-culture references. Ekmans konstnärskap har i mycket präglats av hennes anarkistiska och klarsynta angrepp på normalitet som ständigt har manifesterats i en spännvidd som låtit henne ingå i kretsen kring den inflytelserika undergroundtidningen "Puss" och med separatutställningar på Galerie Aronowitsch.
When looking closer at her multifaceted artisty one discovers that she is a recycler. There is barely a motif that is not repeated in more than one context, not a figure that does not stir up déjà vu. One first encounters these elements in objects or paintins, then in movies, tv-seris and radio programmes. Although the media sources vary in theme and tone over the decades, Ekman continues to reference media through her art, and it is thanks to this that Ekman feels forever young.
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