The exhibition I Follow the Sun highlights both the many different symbolic meanings the sunflower has taken on over time, as well as artists for whom the motif has been of particular importance. The sunflower therefore appears as much more than just a floral motif: as an intersection for several different perspectives on art, nature and human existence.
The sunflower was a popular symbol and a well-established motif in art during the 17th century. However, interest waned in the following century and only towards the end of the 1880s did a larger number of artists begin to work with the sunflower again. The year 1889 therefore forms the chronological starting point for I Follow the Sun, with the Skagen painter Michael Ancher’s Girl with Sunflowers (1889) and the Dutch pointillist Jan Toorop’s La Séduction ou Lueur du Soleil Couchant (ca. 1888–1889). The exhibition also makes several references to modernism, with works by, among others, Emil Nolde, Edward Steichen, Fernand Léger, Bror Hjorth and Hilding Linnqvist.
In Follow the Sun, however, not only shows how the sunflower has been depicted historically, but also how contemporary artists work with the motif. Participants in the exhibition include Klara Kristalova, Anna Bjerger, Tal R, Erik Steffensen and Aura Rosenberg. In addition , Clara Gesang-Gottowt and Edit Sihlberg have also been invited to make new works specifically for I Follow the Sun.
I Follow the Sun also samples several conceptual approaches to the sunflower, such as Ai Weiwei’s millions of handmade sunflower seeds in ceramics and Vik Muniz’s comments on how Van Gogh’s work has been mass reproduced in our contemporary image culture. Anselm Kiefer, in turn, brings in themes and thought material of a completely different nature, with withered sunflowers that sag under the weight of history. A number of photographers also participate in the exhibition. In addition to the already mentioned Edward Steichen, who began working with the motif in the 1920s, works by Elina Brotherus, Rinko Kawauchi, Thomas Struth and Gerry Johansson are also shown.
Participating artists
Emil Nolde, Carl Larsson, Ai Weiwei, Michael Ancher, Elina Brotherus, Anselm Kiefer, Lena Cronqvist, Jan Toorop, Klara Kristalova, Fernand Léger, Tal R, Aura Rosenberg, Olle Bærtling, Clara Gesang-Gottowt, Thorvald Niss, Bror Hjorth, Hilding Linnqvist, Edward Steichen, Piero Gilardi, Thomas Struth, Gerry Johansson, Steve Wood, Erik Steffensen, Cheryl Donegan, Vik Muniz, Roger Andersson, Rinko Kawauchi, Anna Bjerger, Edit Sihlberg.
