Mats Wikström

Constantin Brancusi, born 1876 in Hobita, Romania, died 1957 in Paris, was a pioneer of modernist sculpture. “What does he have to do with me?” asks Mats Wikström. “Brancusi is a big player, I’m not. In 2018, one of his bronzes sold for just over 70 million dollars, I might have sold something for 7,000 kronor, not including VAT. We probably do not have much in common. Still, one of his works, Endless Column, has been on my mind since I saw it on the cover of an art magazine in the late 90’s.”

The zigzag-shaped shaft of a spoon accidentally broke o during an intense moment of carving, and was since mounted onto a plate. This became the beginning of the work now shown in the Luleå Biennial. “Insignificant yet somehow grand in its smallness”, the shaft was reminiscent of Brancusi’s Endless Column, which repeats a form in a similar way, and the small sculpture became the first in a series of Brancusi-esque works. The accompanying relief shows a scene where an enlarged version of the sculpture is viewed by the local art critic Bertil Sundstedt. It all takes place at Luleå konsthall, where we are now looking at Sundstedt looking. The scene depicted in the work might just come true, since Wikström will have a major exhibition at the Gallery in November 2021, one year after the opening of the biennial.

Mats Wikström (b. 1954, Stockholm) is an artist based in Råneå.

Work

Group with Brancusi-like sculptures and relief, 2018
Wood

Location

Luleå konsthall
21.11–14.2