cessfully persuaded the Swedish government to create
a museum specifically dedicated to twentieth century
art. At that time, an Association of Friends of Mod-
erna Museet was formed. Its collection of 150 art
works was transferred in 1958 from the National
Museum to this new Museum of Modern Art (Mod-
ernaMuseet),whichwastobelocatedinanempty
naval drill hall on the island of Skeppsholmen in
Stockholm. After Skold’s death later that year, Pon-
tus Hulten was appointed director and along with
cutting-edge exhibitions of contemporary and kinetic
art, he was responsible for an important photogra-
phy exhibition in 1962,Svenskarna sedda av 11 foto-
grafer(The Swedes as seen by 11 Photographers).
The decade of the 1960s brought great success to
the new museum as concerts, poetry readings, and
films drew large audiences. In 1964, a major exhibi-
tion introduced the Swedish public to American Pop
Art followed in 1965 by the exhibition, ‘‘Helmut
Gernsheim’s Duplicate Collection Classic Camera.’’
This internationally-recognized collection, along with
Professor Helmer Ba ̈ckstro ̈m’s historical photo-
graphic collection acquired in 1964, became the foun-
dation of the Fotografiska Museet, which was
formally established in 1971 when the Fotografiska
Museet’s Friends Association gifted their collection
of photographs to the National Museum. During the
following years, numerous organizations, notably
The Swedish Photographers Association, The Swed-
ish Tourist Organization, The Photographic Society,
Stockholm, The Swedish Tourist Traffic Association,
the National Association of Swedish Photography,
The Press Photographer’s Club,TIO Fotografer(Stu-
dio Ten Photographers) as well as private individuals
donated photographs, thus, establishing photogra-
phy as a permanent fixture on Sweden’s artistic scene.
Later in 1971, the entire collection of photo-
graphs and photographic literature was consoli-
dated and transferred to the Modern Museum. As
part of the reorganization of the National Mu-
seum’s collections in 1973, the Fotografiska Museet
became a department within the Modern Museum
in 1976 and in December of that year, its activities
moved into the Museum’s west gallery. In 1978,
curators A ̊ke Sidwall and Leif Wigh contributed
to the growing international debate on photogra-
phy withTusen och en Bild(Thousand and One
Images), a wide-encompassing survey on the rise
and development of photography. The Fotogra-
fiska Museet continued to organize exhibitions on
a wide-encompassing diversity of subjects, includ-
ingGenom Svenska Ogon(Through Swedish Eyes),
1978–1979; Ba ̈ckstro ̈ms Bilder! (Backstroms Pic-
tures), 1980;Se dig om I gla ̈dje(Look back in
Joy), 1981;and Bla ̈ndande Bilder(Dazzling Pic-
tures) 1981–1982. In 1983, a large retrospective of
the photographs of Henri Cartier-Bresson took
place. In 1984Fotografier fra ̊n Bosporen och Kon-
stantinopel(Photographs from the Bosphoros and
Constantinople) and in 1985, the first retrospective
of Irving Penn expanded the Museum’s exhibition
activities on international photographic subjects.
Meanwhile, Moderna Museet was challenging the
Swedish public with discussions of Postmodernism
by highlighting such artists as painters Andy Warhol,
Marcel Duchamp, Francis Picabia, the group of
American and European sculptors known as the
Minimalists, and photographer Cindy Sherman.
Along with its collection of world-renowned photo-
graphers, including nineteenth-century master Julia
Magaret Cameron and major twentieth-century fig-
ures August Sander, Diane Arbus, Bill Brandt, and
Lotte Jacobi, there are significant Swedish photogra-
phers, such as Sune Jonsson (b. 1930) whose love and
respect for Nordic nature is found in people and
places in the sparsely populated regions of the coun-
tryside, and Christer Stro ̈mholm (b. 1918), founder of
the Kursverksamheten’s School of Photography,
whose deeply moving works display the vulnerabil-
ities of life. Other Swedish photographers are Lennart
af Petersens, Karl Sandels, Walter Hirsch, Lennart
Olson, Harald Lo ̈nnqvist, Annika von Hausswolff,
Emma Schenson, and Monica Englund-Johansson.
In 1990–1991, with the need for more space and
better conditions, an architectural competition was
held for the construction of a new building for the
Moderna Museet. Over 211 proposals were received
with Rafael Moneo of Spain, winner of the 1996
Pritzker Architecture Prize, proclaimed the winner.
In 1993, the old drill hall held its last exhibitions, a
retrospective of the work of Gerhard Richter and
the photographs of Chilean contemporary artist
Alfredo Jaar, and closed after 35 years.
While Moneo’s three-storey modernist building
was rising, temporary premises in a former tram
depot in the city center housed installations, includ-
inganexhibitionofagiftof100IrvingPennphoto-
graphs. The new Modern Museum opened in
February 1998, the year in which Stockholm became
the European Cultural Capital and with the new
premises, the status of the photography collection
with some 300,000 objects changed. In his introduc-
tion to the Moderna Museet’s catalogue, then direc-
tor David Elliott outlined what he recognized as the
task of the modern museum and stating that ‘‘the art
of the whole world must be considered,’’ as he set a
global outlook for the institution. The Fotografiska
Museet lost both its name and its independent
department status and is today housed in the
Department of Exhibitions and Collections of theMODERNA MUSEET