ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on artistic relations, cultural encounters, and participation in the networks that shaped modernist art practices in Europe from around 1910 until the Second World War. It departs from the generally held view of Swedish expressionism by including the graphic arts, which are often omitted in the Swedish context, and by emphasizing the contribution of women artists to expressionism in Sweden, which also tends to be forgotten. The chapter looks at earlier characterizations and discussions of expressionism in art criticism and art-historical texts in Sweden. Swedish expressionist art was much more political in the 1930s than it had been in the 1910s. Both periods were confronted with serious political issues, both domestic and international, but the connection between art and social or political issues of the day in the 1910s was almost non-existent.
