Yesterday it was finally released - the long awaited guide over the art at Umeå university campus. Students, colleagues and visitors have often asked me (and others) if there is information available on the university's art collection. It was an interesting and fun job to be part of, analyzing artworks (both old and new to me) and writing short introductions. All the photos are new, as most of the texts, and it also includes an essay on the architectural developments on campus. The university have a collection of c. 1200 artworks, so it was a challenge to select the 51 that made it to the guide. We had to consider accessibility, variation and representation on many levels, but I am so proud of the book (that will be available in English in the future). But it is not just a book, it is also a free digital product so people walking around campus can find QR-signs near the selected artworks with both the information on the particular object and access to the whole publication. You can also find it here: http://umu-konstguide.onspotstory.com/sv/webapp/guide/sv/1251

In October 2013 I wrote a blog post on a signature of a weaver, Gunn Leander-Bjurström, that made a tapestry designed by Berta Hansson. Now it is time to present the artwork, Livets träd (The tree of life), 1960, and give you a small taste of Umeå university's collection of art. I have the luxury of seeing this masterpiece almost daily since it decorates a main corridor of Humanisthuset (Faculty of Arts building) where I work.

Berta Hansson (1910-1994) made her first solo exhibition in 1943 and was living on her art just a few years after her debut. She painted portraits, landscapes and religious themes. She has described how she after the Second World War was inspired by art she experienced as a child: bible cards used in the biblical teaching in church and the illustrated Bible of Gustave Doré. 

Livets träd can be read as a collage of these cards, mixing scenes from both the Old and the New Testaments; Adam and Eve, Noah, Moses and the life of Jesus. A common way of adapting stories from the Bible into a combined program of the Christian message of God's love and Salvation. Each depicted scene can be read as both evidence and witness of that the message is the truth. In this tapestry we see figures with reduced forms, almost a bit naive in expression with rather large heads. Grand rhetorical gestures makes the viewer understand what each figure wants to communicate. Yet it is also full of finer details; leafs, flowers, animals etc. that together with its strong colors makes it a vibrant and vital composition. The Biblical scenes follow models from early Christian art that makes them easy to identify if you are familiar with the textual and/or visual narrative. What scenes do you recognize? 

If you have read Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy you know that the answer to the question of life is 42. The problem is that nobody remembers the question. This image is something I keep coming back to in my research, being new to medieval studies. Since the Christian dogma pretty much was controlling societies within the Church, the answer to images, texts and all other artifacts describing and communicating messages was the same. God became human through his son Jesus Christ, born from Virgin Mary, sacrificed to free all believing humans from eternal sin when crucified on Golgotha… Well, I might have left out some details to the story but Salvation made possible through Incarnation is the main bit, while faith and obedience are important pieces of the puzzle.

The main point in Christian Medieval art is the various path to the images and the right answer. Different techniques were used in order to make the viewers read and understand what was depicted. Aesthetics was the experience of beauty, not an ideal of beauty - images should do, not just represent, something. They moved the viewers, made them active in faith and spirituality through prayer or meditation. Since the levels of knowledge and learning varied widely in most congregations, images must also be able to communicate  to a wide audience.

The Pietá from Endre parish church (Gotland) below is part of a larger program with multiple scenes from the Story of the Passion. The Virgin Mary holds her dead son in her arms and two other women (also called Mary) are witnessing and sharing her grief. The dead body of Christ is well exposed as a sign of the sacrifice needed for the Salvation. The image both expose emotions and very realistic and matter of fact information. It is taking the viewer to the place of the Virgin and one can experience her pain, and this is what makes the image true and believable. It also reflects the images of The Virgin with Child, so the image can also be said to contain the Incarnation. And, finally (for this post at least, because I am just scratching the surface here of all the possible ways of reading this single image) this sad moment is also a message of joy. Christ will resurrect and save all that believes in God and that he was born and died a human in order to free all Christians from sin.

Be good on the soon approaching Holy Week, enjoy some of the fantastic music composed on the theme of Stabat Mater, and I promise to be back after Easter.

I recently re-read Umberto Eco's novel The Name of the Rose (and I saw the movie as well but, as usual, the book is better) where the plot is based on if laughter and joy is equal of sin. A common stereotype of medieval culture is that it was dark, melancholy and very serious because of the Christian dogma that was pretty much organizing the society. And of course, you should be cautious and stay out of sin so that you would not be eternally damned in the afterlife. But as Mary Carruthers states in her latest book The Experience of Beauty in the Middle Ages (2013) laughter and play was also essential in order to balance your moods and bodily fluids for both spiritual and medical reasons. This is why images in churches might include puns and curiosities for both more intellectual and common visitors. Above is a prophet discussing with a monkey from Odensala church, and below a camel from Härkeberga church — both painted by the Albertus Pictor workshop - but there can also be scrolls with riddles and jokes. And yes, I was April fooled yesterday!