Den postmoderna blicken - Matts Leiderstams queera blick - synar konsthistorien, tar fram de dolda rutnäten, vänder fram målningars baksida och lyfter fram arkiven.

Abstract

In this master thesis I investigate the art of Matts Leiderstam. My primary goal is to examine the Leiderstam gaze and its relation to its time. Artists during the postmodern era often have a radically different approach to creating art than previous generations. Matts Leiderstam has been deeply involved in landscape painting from the 18th century, not so much as a painter as a researcher. We stand with the artist asking ourselves “What is it that we see in plain sight in these paintings and yet do not see?” Leiderstam gives his answers starting from the point in life where his own, very personal, bodily, gay existence takes place. My thesis makes use of art theory, phenomenology, queer theory and feminism to come to grips with Leiderstam’s gaze. The play between copy and “original” plays a crucial role in Matts Leiderstam’s art, as does his queer eye. His investigations of “the grid”, the back of paintings and his archive art are also examined applying the ideas of Pierre Bourdieu and his view of the Cultural field. My method is primarily though based on Michael Baxandall’s idea of “the period eye”. I try to recreate some of the most influential cultural discussions during a couple of decades around the turn of the millennium and relate them to Leiderstam’s art. Hereby the gaze of Matts Leiderstam comes to fruition and underlying power structures emerge.