Kjartan Slettemark – Political messages

Kjartan Slettemark was a driving force on the Scandinavian art scene and an early pioneer in performance and art activism. Kjartan Slettemark was a representative of the anti-authoritarian movement of the seventies. He made a name for himself with actions such as moving into the Moderna Museet in Stockholm to seek asylum, travelling in the US with a passport with a picture of a bearded Richard Nixon and his unexpected appearances at gallery openings in a poodle costume. He is perhaps best known for his series of images based on a photograph of the coffee-drinking US President Richard Nixon clipped with an advertising image for Gevalia. The composition was copied, scanned, flipped and rotated, and provided with a twist of text for a never-ending stream of artwork. It was a protest against the US war in Vietnam, American imperialism, and the Swedish conservative party. Over time, Kjartan Slettemark went from being an anti-authoritarian activist to creating works of a more inward-looking nature. Instead of criticizing the system and power, his later art took a more conciliatory stance.