In her will, the artist Anna Sjödahl (1934-2001) bequeathed Bildmuseet, as one of four beneficiaries, works from her estate. Three major works - the paintings The Banquet (Gästabudet) and The View from Stjälkhammar School, Uknadalen (Utsikt vid Stjälkhammar skola, Uknadalen) and a portfolio containing five wax crayon drawings - were received by Bildmuseet in the autumn of 2001. This donation will be exhibited at Bildmuseet from September 15 to October 13 and will thereafter be placed in a public space at Umeå university.
Anna Sjödahl lived in Stockholm, but for a two periods - 1991 and 1993-94 - she worked as an assistant professor at the Academy of Fine Art (Konsthögskolan) in Umeå. In 1994, Bildmuseet housed a solo exhibition of Sjödahl's work. According to Sjödahl herself, the time in Umeå was some of the most valuable in her artistic career. She much appreciated the contact with the students and kept in touch even after she had left the academy.
A theme running throughout Anna Sjödahl's artwork is the family, seen from both a social and a political point-of-view. With great intensity and mild wit, Sjödahl expressed the multiplicity and pulse of her time. In works from the 1960s and 70s, Sjödahl described, among other things, her experiences as an artist and a single parent with four children, living an artist's life that was still marked by male bohemians. Spring in Hallonbergen (Vår i Hallonbergen) from 1973, which paraphrases Munch's The Scream, is one of the foremost icons of 20th century Swedish art.
During the 1980s and 90s, Sjödahl's perspectives on family and time altered. Discussion of the social dimension of life took Anna Sjödahl to a new plane and in a new direction. Classic beauty characterises the large paintings produced on the hillsides of Uknadalen, which lie on the border between Småland and Östergötland. Here, Sjödahl and her partner, the artist Thomas Tempte, had a summer studio.
