Denise Grünstein studied photography at Beckmans School of Design, but she never received an academic training in photography like so many of the contemporary photographers. She instead learned photography the practical way. Her field of activity has included both commercial photography in fashion and interior design, but also still photography in the film industry. This diversity of starting points has given Grünstein the freedom to experiment with different types of photographic expressions that she has applied throughout her career.
– Denise Grünstein was not only a photographer, but a multifaceted artist who worked with interfaces between different artistic media. Artipelag has followed her artistic practice for many years and her works are included in our collection. We are very happy about the opportunity to present Grünstein’s work in an extensive separate exhibition at Artipelag, says museum director Bo Nilsson.
Grünstein had his artistic breakthrough in his participation in the ground-breaking exhibition Dazzling Images in 1981 at the Photography Museum in Stockholm. It was a new type of photography with metaphysical overtones, mystery and a space that saw the light of day for the first time. Grünstein belongs to the foreground figures in this new photography which meant a paradigm shift on the Swedish photography scene.
Her portraits attracted attention and during the 1990s she was commissioned by Månadsjournalen to portray the magazine’s in-depth portraits of the era’s leading celebrities, which included Queen Silvia and the actress Anita Ekberg. Here she became known to the general public as Månadjournalen’s main photographer when she changed the iconic image of mass media celebrities from unattainable figures to real people, but with a mythic narrative.
After successful years as a portrait photographer, it was natural for Grünstein to focus his activities on artistic photography. In 1998 , the Zone V suite began during a trip in former Eastern Europe and the disintegrated Soviet Union. Shortly afterwards, in 2001, Grünstein had his artistic breakthrough with the exhibition Figure in Landscape at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm. Here she fully developed what is usually called “staged photography” and thereafter the exhibitions have succeeded each other.
The highlight of her career was En Face/1866 at the Art Academy in Stockholm in 2015. When the National Museum was empty before its upcoming renovation, Grünstein got the opportunity to carry out the art project En Face/1866 . The title links to the museum’s opening year and alludes in several ways to the building’s history. Ambiguity, suggestion and mystery are recurring themes in Grünstein’s artwork. Her work encompasses multiple levels of reality with soft stances such as fiction, metaphysics, ideology and gender identity. It is her affirmation of photography’s substantive possibilities that has made Grünstein a role model for the younger generation of photographers.
