Ung, samtida och postmodern : En studie av det svenska konstfältet under 1980-talet utifrån Lars Nilssons konstnärskap

The aim of this thesis is to study the Swedish art field during the 1980s, from the perspective of the artistic production of Lars Nilsson. During this decade he became one of the most well known young artists associated with postmodernism. The thesis is divided into three parts, where the first part examines different influences and aspects of the art of Lars Nilsson, as well as the contexts he was a part of. This is performed through a chronological as well as a categorizing presentation, based upon different exhibitions where Nilsson participated during the 1980s. In the second part the subject is the Swedish art field, and how Lars Nilsson came to be part of a a new established category of a young generation of artists, mostly born in the 1950s, who were associated with youth, postmodernism and contemporaneousness. This part also puts attention to the importance of Lars Nittve, then art critic and curator, in introducing postmodernism, as well as establishing this new categorization of artists in Sweden. The last part of the thesis studies four different group exhibitions, and how they all exemplify how "a younger generation of artists" were to be connected with notions of postmodernism and contemporaneousness through curatorial practice. Lars Nilsson participated at the thirst three of these exhibitions. This is followed with a last group exhibition, where the idea of younger artists as the most contemporary were to be questioned. The thesis ends with a summary and a discussion.