The Art Newspaper

Pontus Hultén “jukebox” at Moderna Muse

By The Art Newspaper. Museums, Issue 191, May 2008
Published online: 01 May 2008

LONDON. The new Renzo Piano-designed Pontus Hultén Study Gallery at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm opens to the public on 30 May. The gallery’s centrepiece is a two-storey, SKr3.6m (E382,000) automated storage system that enables visitors and researchers to get a close-up view of two-dimensional pieces such as paintings and drawings that are not currently on view.

The “Hultén jukebox” allows visitors to select a work on the system’s computer and watch as the machine retrieves it from the stacks on the floor above.

The pieces are drawn from the 700 modern and contemporary works of art donated by the museum’s former director Pontus Hultén, a year before the Swedish collector died in 2006. His collection, which includes pieces by Warhol, Rauschenberg, Lichtenstein, Brancusi, Dalí and Tinguely, amongst others, will be supplemented by other donations to the museum. The concept was conceived by Mr Hultén and Mr Piano as a way to maximise the accessibility of the collection. The SKr6m (E637,000) gallery also includes a reference library with a reading area and sculptures from the museum’s permanent collection.

Emily Sharpe