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Abstract

This essay investigates how broadcast television was utilized and conceptualized as a means of communicating the importance and meaning of modern art appreciation to the Swedish viewing public in the 1960s. More specifically, the essay focuses on how the problem of encouraging individual art appreciation on a national scale was managed. Empirically the essay examines Multikonst (Multi Art), a large-scale art exhibition project that took place in 1967. The project was a collaboration between the Swedish Broadcasting Corporation, the nongovernmental organization Konstfrämjandet, and the governmental project Riksutställningar, and it brought together a variety of media. Key to the project’s overall planning was, however, television. Drawing inspiration from a predominant conception of television as a real-time “live” medium, the project consisted of 100 identical exhibitions that were opened and shown simultaneously at different locations across Sweden. The opening accordingly took place “on the air,” with a speech by minister of education and culture Ragnar Edenman broadcasted to TV sets placed in the various exhibition locations. Besides broadcasting the opening speech, the Swedish Broadcasting Corporation produced and aired five programs during the weeks of the exhibition, perhaps most notably a variety show, recorded at the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, celebrating the exhibition opening. The main focal point of this article is an in-depth analysis of the programs produced and aired as part of the project, focusing on the forms and modes of address used to engage the audience in the importance of modern art. The article places this detailed study of the particular programming into a larger historical context of cultural politics and conceptions of communication and information, elaborating on how and why educating the audience in the appreciation of modern art was considered a problem during the time, and why it was of crucial importance.

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