Sweden

C

Art and Architecture

Swedish art originated in the Bronze Age (1500-500 bc). Ornaments dating from this period reveal an independent artistic style. Stone sculptures on the island of Gotland date to about ad 500. The arts, especially sculpture, flourished in connection with the construction of churches from about 1100 to 1350. Since the Middle Ages, broader trends in Europe have profoundly influenced the direction of Swedish art.

Prominent Swedish artists of the 18th century included painters Carl Gustav Pilo and Alexander Roslin and sculptor Johan Tobias von Sergel. Significant artists of the 19th century included Carl Fredrik Hill and Ernst Josephson. Internationally recognized artists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries were painters Anders Leonhard Zorn and Carl Larsson. Carl Milles was an acclaimed sculptor of the 20th century.

Swedish folk arts, including wood carvings and decorative arts, are widely admired. Modern Swedish home furnishings and Swedish glassware and silverware are known internationally. IKEA, a large Swedish furniture company, is world-famous for its inexpensive and simply designed household goods. Orrefors is a center noted for its artistry in making crystal vases and stemware.

In architecture, Sweden developed the medieval log cabin, which was widely copied in the United States in the 17th century. However, major architectural advances, including the movement toward functionalism, were not made until the late 19th century. Since then, internationally noted Swedish architects have included Ragnar Östberg, Erik Gunnar Asplund, and Sven Gottfrid Markelius.

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D

Film

In motion pictures Swedish artists have won international acclaim, particularly in the era preceding the 1960s, after which a great many Swedish actors and directors moved to Hollywood, California. Important directors include Ingmar Bergman, Lasse Hallström, Arne Edvard Sucksdorff, and Arne Mattsson. Cinematographer Sven Nykvist is known for his collaborations with Bergman, Hallström, and American director Woody Allen. Prominent Swedish film actors include Ingrid Bergman, Greta Garbo, Mai Zetterling (also a director), Max von Sydow, and Lena Olin. Göteborg stages a well-attended annual film festival.

E

Literature

In literature, playwright and writer August Strindberg is probably Sweden’s best-known figure. Swedish authors to win a Nobel Prize in literature include novelist Selma Lagerlöf; novelist, poet, and playwright Pär Lagerkvist; and author Harry Martinson. Astrid Lindgren is known to children in many countries as the author of the famous Pippi Longstocking (Pippi Långstrump) series of children’s novels. Vilhelm Moberg won recognition for his books about Swedish immigrants in the United States. See Swedish Literature.

F

Music

The greatest Swedish contribution to music has been in the field of song. Choir singing, most often organized by church congregations, remains a very popular social and cultural activity in Sweden. Famous Swedish singers have included Jenny Lind, Christina Nilsson, Jussi Björling, Birgit Nilsson, and Lena Willemark. Swedish folk songs are typically ballads accompanied by the fiddle, the nyckelharpa (a keyed fiddle), among other traditional instruments. Some modern folk musicians, such as Willemark, sing traditional herding calls, (called kulning or lockrop). A high-pitched vocal technique used mainly by women and dating to the Middle Ages, kulning can be piercing in tone and convey a feeling of melancholy.

In the 18th century, a period of cultural flowering, King Gustav III founded the Academy of Music, the Stockholm Opera, and the Royal Ballet. Swedish Italian ballerina Marie Taglioni was an important figure in dance in the 19th century. A Swedish composer who achieved international fame was symphonist Franz Berwald. Modern composers include Hugo Alfvén, whose music is based on Swedish folk songs; Hilding Rosenberg; and Karl-Birger Blomdahl.

Since the 1970s, a number of Swedish pop and rock music groups have achieved international acclaim. Perhaps most famous of these are the bands Abba, Roxette, and Ace of Base. In recent years, a vibrant heavy metal and punk music scene has developed in Sweden.

V

Economy

As in most developed nations, services—including communications and transportation, finance, education and health care, and tourism—are Sweden’s most important economic activities as a share of gross domestic product (GDP). An extensive range of services in Sweden are provided by state-owned enterprises, which are funded by one of the highest levels of taxation in Europe. They include health care, housing for the needy, education, and child care for working parents.

Sweden is also an industrial giant. Sweden’s output of manufactured goods is only slightly less than that of Norway, Finland, and Denmark combined. Sweden lacks a wide range of natural resources, but it does have rich deposits of iron ore, abundant waterpower resources, and extensive forest reserves. Through technological innovation and efficient work processes, Sweden has used its resources to become one of the world’s leading manufacturing and exporting nations. Traditional exports include paper and pulp and steel (Iron and Steel Manufacture). In recent decades newer industries, including information technology, biotechnology, and pharmaceuticals, have grown in importance. Industrial diversification has helped stabilize Sweden’s economy by moderating the effects of fluctuations in international demand. Sweden promotes a liberal trade policy and was a founding member of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA, established 1960). In 1995 Sweden became a full member of the European Union (EU), at which time it withdrew from EFTA.

Since the 1930s Sweden has operated a mixed economy (often referred to as the “Swedish model”), a system that has created an unusual degree of economic equality among citizens and a highly developed infrastructure. Although more than 90 percent of Swedish industry is privately owned, the government exerts substantial control over economic life to promote full employment, economic development, and the provision of generous social welfare benefits. Nearly 80 percent of Swedish workers belong to labor unions, one of the world’s highest rates of unionization. Labor-management relations are generally excellent, and strikes are rare. The high level of unionization has created a comparatively high minimum wage, even for low-skill jobs. For many decades the Swedish model has proved remarkably successful, providing Swedes with low unemployment and one of the world’s highest per-capita standards of living.

A severe recession in the early 1990s—the worst to hit Sweden since the Great Depression of the 1930s—raised concerns about Sweden’s ability to maintain its mixed economy. Both the budget deficit and unemployment soared. The Swedish government quickly responded with austerity measures that included tax reforms, a reduction in civil service employment, cuts in some social-welfare programs, and the partial privatization of some state-owned enterprises (particularly in postal services, telecommunications, and railroad transportation). The moves, which resulted in a modest reduction in the public sector, helped restore confidence in Sweden’s economy and promoted an economic recovery that only slowed with the global economic downturn of 2001. The episode refocused Swedish attention on economic growth and marked the emergence of a broad consensus underlining Sweden’s commitment to egalitarian policies while limiting unwise public spending.

A notable feature of Swedish economic life is the cooperative movement. Consumer and producer cooperatives handle a substantial share of all retail trade. Consumer cooperatives were first formed in the 19th century. The largest, the Swedish Cooperative Union, owns supermarkets, department stores, and other retail outlets, and claims about 3 million members. The Federation of Swedish Farmers, to which almost all farmers belong, owns dairies, meat-packing plants, and fertilizer and farm-equipment factories. It oversees most sales of goods such as butter, cheese, milk, eggs, grain, meat, and wool.

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