Stockholm, April 10th, 2010

To whom it may concern

I met the Swedish artist, Mr Ture Sjölander, in the early 1960's.  He was already then an extremely gifted photographer. His career has after that been amazing. He became a pioneer in video art, an art branch that has since then grown in a fantastic way.

Already in 1964-65 Mr Ture Sjölander created a piece of video art, named "The Role of Photography".  Pierre Restany, the French famous art critic and cultural philosopher, recognised Sjölander's talent, when he got in contact with his work in Paris in 1968.

From the late 60's  I have just had the possibility to follow Sjölander's activities from a distance and occasionally, as he has been working internationally. Through his own works he has in this way done a lot to promote Swedish creativity abroad.

In 1980's  he was one of the founders of the "Video Nu" an independent laboratory for artistic terminal development. After that his activities have been even more interesting. He is now living on the countryside in Australia. As many pioneers, who have contributed to the development, he has not been awarded economically as he should have been. Therefore I think it is time that we in Sweden should recognize his importance. If so, a young generation,  not always so well informed about the history of art,  would get to know some of the roots of all the photo based contemporary art forms that have expanded so quickly during the last decades.

Sincerely

Kerstin Wickman

Professor emeritus in Design and Craft history, at Konstfack, National College of Art, Craft and Design, Stockholm