Challenges, Comparisons, and Conclusions

Abstract

Commissioned personal monuments contrast sharply with artworks generated solely on the artist’s initiative and under the artist’s control. While the latter find their places in museums or private property, commissioned personal monuments are destined for specified public spaces and their commission carries with it a set of conditions. It is worthwhile investigating these factors, which are specific to the genre, as, in many cases, they are the key to understanding why a monument is erected in a given space and why it looks the way it does. The Wallenberg monuments were, for the most part, commissioned personal monuments and as part of that genre were subjected to specific preconditions and expectations that placed limitations on the artistic works and/or affect the perception of the works. At this point in the study I wish to address these factors, which are often neglected even though they are of great importance for the perception of the genre. Given that this is the first monographic study on the Raoul Wallenberg monuments and because of the chosen art historical focus, the discussion itself will be restricted to the monuments. The Wallenberg monuments are quite recent—most being erected between the years 1983 and 2007—and thus they naturally give rise to a discussion of the genre in its contemporary state, its possibilities and limitations.