"En dagstidning i betong" : en studie av den samtida receptionen av Siri Derkerts Ristningar i naturbetong (1965) på Östermalmstorgs tunnelbanestation i Stockholm

The aim of this study is to analyse the contemporary art critical reception of Siri Derkert’s Ristningar i naturbetong (translates to Engravings in natural concrete) (1965) at the metro station of Östermalmstorg in central Stockholm, and further contextualising the reception within the art debate of modern and public art in 1960’s Sweden. Using linguist Norman Fairclough’s three step-discourse analysis as both methodological and theoretical starting points, combined with art historian Wolfgang Kemp's reception aesthetics, archived newspaper articles, principally from the year 1965, are read and analysed in the study. Aided by a thematic division of the analysis through the themes expression, content, material and permanence some broad conclusions can be made. The results of the study conclude the reception of Derkert’s public work of art as generally positive. There is a consensus in the view of Ristningar i naturbetong in its originality, expressivity, modernity and, in regards to material and technique, experimentality. The artwork’s musical elements, political statements and use of the Norwegian natural concrete, are to a high extent represented in the analyzed articles. In several places the language connotes religious themes in its comparisons of Derkert’s artwork to churches and cathedrals, an element in the reception that is interpreted as a way to enhance the future understanding and potential of the work of art.