About The Collection

Malmö Konstmuseum has one of the largest art collections in Sweden, comprised of over 40,000 artworks and objects, mainly from the 16th century through today. The museum’s collection mostly consists of paintings, sculptures, installations, film, drawings, and graphics, as well as handicrafts and industrial design. During the last 35 years, the museum has actively been collecting contemporary Nordic art, but there has been a clear Nordic focus in the collecting of the past, as well. The art collection of Herman Gotthardt makes up one of the main pillars of the museum’s collections. Up until 1944, Gotthardt donated 768 paintings, sculptures, drawings, and graphics by Nordic modernist artists to the museum. The museum also has a large and unique collection of Russian art from the turn of the 20th century. It is partially made up of the Russian works shown at the Baltic Exhibition in Malmö in 1914, that remained here following the outbreak of the First World War. Since 2015, Malmö Konstmuseum is also managing the donation of Karin and Jules Schyl, which was received by the City of Malmö in 1983. The donation was then managed by Malmö Konsthall, but the decision to transfer it to Malmö Konstmuseum was made with the museum’s mission of taking care of and preserving knowledge and collections in mind.

Beyond these special collections within the collection, Malmö Konstmuseum also has vast collections with art by individual artists, such as Carl Fredrik Hill (2,643 works), Ester Almqvist (2045 works), Ola Billgren (30 works), Torsten Andersson (30 works), Gunnar Norrman (1,050 works), Barbro Bäckström (358 works), and Max Walter Svanberg (154 works).

The earliest art collections were owned by kings and nobility, and were not available to the public. It was not until 1789, when the Louvre was opened following the French Revolution, that an art collection was made available to a broader audience. During the 19th century, even more royal collections were opened, and the museum as we know it today was born. Even smaller cities that did not have any royal collections wanted their own museums and the public themselves donated art, money, and objects to realise that dream. The purpose of the museum was didactic, and the collections included everything from organic, ethnological, and technical objects, to artworks and handicrafts. The idea was to create a place where the public could learn more about nature, technology, and culture, and where those who didn’t have the funds to buy art themselves could enjoy the best from both the past and the present.

Malmö Konstmuseum has a collection of precisely that nature, created out of the initiative of the city’s citizens, and realised with the help of generous donations from artists and individuals alike. The museum was originally an art and handicrafts division of Malmö Museum, but as the collections grew, there was a need for a new, separate institution – in 1999 Malmö received its own, independent art museum.

Every year, the museum acquires a large number of new artworks, around 50–75 artworks, with the main focus on contemporary Nordic art.

Ester Almqvist, The Sawmill, December Sun, 1914

Ester Almqvist, The Sawmill, December Sun, 1914

Collection