Minskolan Mino (The Mino School of Facial Expressions)

Executed in 1971.

Retroactively signed and dated: ‘ML Ekman 2019’ verso.

30 x 39 cm. (41 x 49.5 cm. incl. Milky Yellow original picture frame chosen, and painted, by the artist).

One of the basic, and most common, metaphors in Marie-Louise Ekman’s production is the theatre with its references – stages, set designs, scenography, roles, masks etcetera. The theatre is, simultaneously, the most banal as well as the most telling reenactment (or picture) of life imaginable. Realizing, and accepting, this truth, Ekman extracts energy from, seemingly, worn out everyday images through her artistic approach. Given Ekman’s interest in human relationships, and the fundamental feelings that go with the territory, it seems utterly logical for her to turn to these archetypal metaphors, masks or facial expressions. In this way, she combines simplicity with complexity, or rather extracts complexity from the seemingly simple or commonplace.

Predominantly hailed as a painterly pictorial artist, Ekman is no stranger to the world of acting either. Not only do many of the characters/protagonists in her paintings behave like, or resemble, actors on a stage, but Ekman has also, for several decades, made her presence felt in theatre and movies (cinema/feature films as well as television productions) alike. Ekman’s acclaimed work in the field, earning her a Creative Achievement award at the 26th Guldbagge Awards (1991), ranges from creating costumes and set designs to scriptwriting, directing and acting, culminating in her appointment as Managing (and Artistic) Director of the prestigious Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm (2009 – 2014).

As early on as in 1968 Ekman designed costumes for Revyn -varför inte tala om saken (The Revue -why not talk about it), directed by Ernst Günther (1933 – 1999, Swedish actor and director) for the Stockholm City Theatre. The following year she played one of the parts in Öyvind Fahlström’s (1928 – 1976, legendary and productive multimedia artist, author and poet, working in many genres, often dealing with political and social issues) film Du gamla, du fria / Provocation, released in 1972, and co-founded the fringe theatre group Fria Teatern, with Torsten Wahlund (1938 – 2024, Swedish actor), Birgitta Sundberg (Swedish actor and artistic leader), Anders Linder (born 1941, Swedish actor, musician and architect) and others. Marie-Louise worked as an actor with Fria Teatern, and the group performed in the streets as well as in prisons.

In the early 1970s Ekman returned to the, more established, Stockholm City Theatre where (in 1970) she appeared in the play Minns du den stad, directed by Johan Bergenstråhle (1935 – 2007, Swedish film director and screenwriter, Ekman’s husband 1971 - 1980), as the factory girl Ingeborg, who becomes an artist’s model, only to end up as a prostitute. A couple of years later (in 1973) Ekman also designed costumes for Stockholm City Theatre’s production of Selma Lagerlöf’s (1858 – 1940, Swedish writer who became the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature [1909]. Additionally, she was the first woman in the Swedish Academy [1914]) legendary Gösta Berling’s Saga (Lagerlöf’s first novel, published when she was 33 years old).

Minskolan Mino (The Mino School of Facial Expressions), from 1971, relates to Ekman’s close encounter with the world of theatre in the early 1970s. Interestingly enough, the painting was originally in the collections of Vivica Bandler (1917 – 2004) who, as its managing director, ran the Stockholm City Theatre between 1969 and 1980. Bandler was a celebrated Finnish theatre manager, director, scriptwriter (and agronomist) of Swedish descent. Described as a bold and unprejudiced director she is credited with popularizing Finnish avant-garde theatre at home and abroad. During her tenure in Sweden the Stockholm City Theatre blossomed into one of the most vital scenes in the country. Several productions, brand new plays as well as some of the old classics, won the approval of critics and the audience alike.

Born into a well-situated family (her father was Mayor of Helsinki and member of parliament, Erik von Frenckell [1877 – 1977] and her mother was theatre historian, and professor, Ester-Margaret Frenckell [1890 – 1974, née Lindberg]), Bandler studied agronomy, graduating in 1943, after which she maintained her family home, Saari Manor, a historic estate (dating back to at least 1559), located in Tammela, Finland. She had wanted to become a professional film director (founding, and directing, Helsinki’s first Swedish student theatre, Studentteatern, in 1939) but (mostly because of her gender) opportunities were scarce, leaving her, eventually, to pursue a degree in agriculture instead.

She bravely served in the Lotta Svärd movement during World War II (receiving the Finnish Medal of Liberty, 2nd Class) and married Austrian refugee (who served as a volunteer in the Finnish army during the Winter War 1939 – 1940) Kurt Bandler in 1943 (they later divorced in 1963). In 1946, soon after her marriage to Bandler, she became involved in a love affair with the Finnish artist Tove Jansson (1914 – 2001), which is documented by a series of letters they exchanged in subsequent years. Jansson, famously, incorporated the pair of them into her internationally renowned and loved Moomin series as Thingumy and Bob (Swedish: Tofslan och Vifslan, named for Tove and Vivica respectively). Bandler eventually decided to stay with her husband, but the two women maintained a lifelong friendship. Bandler adapted two of Jansson’s Moomin stories for theatre. In cooperation with her husband, she also translated the first three Moomin books, The Moomins and the Great Flood (1945); Comet in Moominland (1946) and Finn Family Moomintroll (1948) into German.

Bandler’s career took a decisive step forward when, in 1955, she (singlehandedly and without any financial help from her family) acquired Lilla Teatern (The Little Theatre) in Helsinki. It was here that she laid the foundation of what would prove a long, and successful, career as an avant-garde director of theatre. Plays directed by Bandler included works by radical authors such as Jean Genet (1910 – 1986), Jean-Paul Sartre (1905 – 1980) and Eugène Ionesco (1909 – 1994).

Bandler also cared about her Finnish heritage, and as early as 1951 she had staged an amateur performance of Aleksis Kivi’s (1834 – 1872) Seitsemän veljestä /Seven Brothers (the production, based on the first significant novel written in the Finnish language, was also performed in Paris). As director at The Little Theatre Bandler also had a great impact on the artistic development of Lasse Pöysti (1927 – 2019, Finnish actor, director, theatre manager and writer. Manager of Lilla Teatern 1967 – 1974 and between 1981 and 1985 manager of the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm [where Marie-Louise Ekman would be manager 2009 – 2014], Birgitta Ulfson’s husband, 1952 - 1984) and Birgitta Ulfson (1928 – 2017, Finnish actress and theatre director. She was a versatile actor and a recognized pioneer of avant-garde theatre in Finland, Lasse Pöysti’s wife 1952 – 1984).

In 1962, Bandler was awarded the Pro Finlandia medal of the Order of the Lion of Finland. She was also a Commander of the Order of the Lion of Finland (1988), as well as Commander of the Swedish Royal Order of the Polar Star (1994).

Between 1989 and 1996 Bandler served as artistic leader of Pyynikin kesäteatteri (Pyynikki Open Air Theatre) in Tampere, Finland. Bandler passed away in 2004 and is buried in Hietaniemi cemetery (where Tove Jansson was also laid to rest, just three years earlier, in 2001), Helsinki.

Provenance

Originally in the collections of theatre manager and director Vivica Bandler, Stockholm/Helsinki.

Auktionsbyrån Effecta, Västerås, Sweden, 19 May 2019.

Private collection.

Bukowskis, Stockholm, sale 654, Contemporary Art & Design, 24 – 25 April 2024, lot 309.

Firestorm Foundation (acquired from the above).

Literature

(Ed.) Maria Lind, Marie-Louise Ekman, 1998, mentioned p. 61 and illustrated full page in colour, p. 65.

Marie-Louise Ekman, This is not an answer: On the work of Marie-Louise Ekman, 2013, illustrated full page, p. 176-177.

Copyright Firestorm Foundation