Kjartan Slettemark (1932-2008) was a Norwegian-Swedish painter and sculptor, known for his political art during the 1960s and 1970s. He primarily resided and worked in Stockholm. In 1971, Kjartan Slettemark came across a campaign poster with Nixon's portrait, inadvertently sent from the American embassy. It hung on the studio wall for a few weeks when one day he asked for an advertisement poster for Gevalia coffee that he had seen at his local store. The advertising image depicted a smiling woman lifting a coffee cup. When Kjartan Slettemark cut out the woman's hand and placed it on the Nixon image, the size, color, and lighting matched perfectly. He immediately wanted to print the work as its own poster but couldn't afford the printing costs. He added the text "Moderna Museet - Open every day 12 - 22" to the image and submitted it for printing at the press used by the Moderna Museet. The poster was printed, and the bill was sent to the Moderna Museet. The next morning, Stockholm's advertising columns were filled with Nixon posters. Moderna Museet reacted by sending a letter to the artist forbidding him from selling or spreading the image. Nevertheless, the image continued to appear around the city.
Kjartan Slettemark continued to work on the image, removing the museum's text and making it even more similar to Gevalia's campaign image. The fake Gevalia poster was political art, a protest against the USA's war in Vietnam and American imperialism. In 1971, the Gävle-based company Gevalia had been bought by the multinational company General Foods – thus aligning itself with the opposition. The story progresses as the advertising text is removed and evolves into the collage series "Nixon Visions," where the president's face is distorted in various ways.
