Monica Sjöö

Monica Sjöö was born in Härnösand, in the north of Sweden, but spent most of her adult life in Bristol, United Kingdom. Sjöö dropped out of school and left home, only sixteen years old, in 1956, spending the next few years hitch-hiking around Europe, whilst holding a variety of temporary jobs. She first came to United Kingdom in late 1957 (after having met her future husband, the Englishman Stevan Trickey in Paris), eventually settling in Bristol where – except for a period in Wales in the early 1980s (1980 – 1985) and some international travels – she remained for the rest of her life.

In the early sixties Sjöö studied sculpture and etching, as well as attending an art course at the Royal West of England Academy (RWA) in Bristol, 1962 - 1963. The following year she had her first exhibition – primarily abstract paintings – in Bristol. Prompted by the death of her mother, in September 1965, Sjöö travelled to Stockholm where she would remain until 1967. During this time, she became involved in the anti-Vietnam War movement.

It was also now that she read Alarm Clock (1941) by Swedish author Elin Wägner (1882 – 1949, journalist, feminist-pioneer, ecologist, pacifist and member of the Swedish Academy from 1944), a forerunner of the so-called “green wave” movement of the 1960s as well as the feminist ecological activism of the 1970s. Further inspiration came from the Swedish artist Siri Derkert (1888 - 1973), whose artistic practice and political activism (particularly concerning equality and women’s rights) greatly inspired Sjöö, who became Derkert’s assistant. Sjöö and Derkert would keep in touch, exchanging letters up until Derkert’s death in 1973. In 1967 Sjöö had her first solo exhibition at Galleri Karlsson in Stockholm, showing motifs considered improper (paintings depicting nude men, deliberately challenging the dominant male ideal within what Sjöö considered androcentric art history). Later that year Sjöö returned to Bristol.

Over the next three decades Sjöö travelled widely, frequently changed partners, made pilgrimages to sacred sites and studied history. Sjöö concluded that “in Patriarchy men are sacred and women profane” and decided to dedicate her life “to creating paintings that speak of women’s lives, our history and sacredness”. The end of the 1960s saw Sjöö paint her, possibly, best-known work God Giving Birth (1968, oil on panel, 185 x 125 cm, MAN/Museum Anna Nordlander, Skellefteå, Sweden) and cofound Bristol Women’s Liberation Group (1969).

The 1970s and 1980s were decades marked by intense artistic and intellectual output. Sjöö wrote the manifesto ¨’Towards a Revolutionary Feminist Art’ (1972) and published the pamphlets ‘Some Notes on Feminist Art – Women’s Art, Women Culture Reborn’ (1974) and ‘The Ancient Religion of The Great Cosmic Mother of All’ (1975, later expanded into the book by the same name, co-written with Barbara Mor [1936 – 2015, American poet, editor and Feminist of the 20thcentury Goddess movement]). In 1984 she created several new works, and her paintings were included in the exhibition Women Artists in Wales the following year. In 1987 she published (once again with Barbara Mor) The Great Cosmic Mother: Rediscovering the Religion of the Earth, which became one of her best-known works. The 1980s would also become a period marked by personal tragedy. The death of her two sons within a short space of time left her in a deep depression.

Sjöö’s final years brought with them several exhibitions of her work. MAN/Museum Anna Nordlander, Skellefteå, Sweden, organized a solo exhibition with some thirty works, including God Giving Birth and Cosmos within Her Womb(1971, oil on masonite, 183 x 122 cm, Moderna Museet, Stockholm) in 1994. This was followed up by Sjöö’s participation in the Sharjah Third International Biennial, United Arab Emirates (1997) and the group exhibition Hjärtat sitter till vänster – svensk konst 1964 - 1974 (The Heart is on the Left - Swedish Art 1964 – 1974) at Gothenburg Museum of Art (1998), which travelled to Konstens Hus, Luleå; Uppsala Konstmuseum and Södertälje Konsthall in Sweden the following year. In 1999 Sjöö wrote her last book, The Norse Goddess. Sjöö’s final exhibitions, during her lifetime, included the group exhibition Windows to Other Worlds at Saint Petersburg State University, Russia (2002), her retrospective Through Time and Space: The Ancient Sisterhoods Spoke to Me at Hotbath Gallery in Bath, United Kingdom and Monica Sjöö – Blessed Be at Konstnärshuset, Stockholm. 

Monica Sjöö died of Cancer in Bristol on 8 August 2005, aged 66. In recent years her art has been more recognized than ever. In 2022 Beaconsfield Contemporary Art, London mounted the aptly named exhibition Monica Sjöö: The Time is Now & it is Overdue!. The following year brought the extensive solo exhibition Monica Sjöö -The Great Cosmic Mother(Moderna Museet, Stockholm and Modern Art Oxford, United Kingdom). This was followed up the next year when the exhibition continued at Moderna Museet, Malmö, Sweden at the same time as Alison Jacques in London showed Monica Sjöö.

Today her paintings are, rightfully, regarded as icons of feminism. During her fifty-year long career as an artist, writer, philosopher, lecturer and activist Monica Sjöö took part in a variety of groundbreaking and seminal activities and events in Europe as well as the United States. She is nowadays considered a pioneering radical anarcho/eco-feminist whose books and paintings were foundational to the development of feminist art in the United Kingdom.

Gitte Ørskou and Paul Hobson writes (in Monica Sjöö. The Great Cosmic Mother, exhibition catalogue, Moderna Museet, Stockholm/Malmö, Sweden & Modern Art Oxford, United Kingdom, 2023):

Today, we can look back at a body of work that made waves in its day and now seems more relevant than ever for new generations, who share Sjöö’s ideals and outlook. But her work is interesting not only because of its political relevance. The enduring emotion of her paintings, collages and drawings is as affecting today as when they were created decades ago. Though she is rooted in an age that longed for a new world, her work is timeless.

Copyright Firestorm Foundation