STOCKHOLM – PARIS

23 May – 14 September

The 50th anniversary of the museum is celebrated with a special art exhibition devoted to the museum's founder, the Swedish aristocrat Rolf de Maré (1888–1964) and his life in art as collector, ballet leader and museum director. The exhibition will include works by Bonnard, de Chirico, Léger, Picabia and Picasso as well by Spanish masters – and not least by de Maré's close friend the Swedish painter Nils Dardel, who guided de Maré in developing Sweden's foremost collection of modern art in the 1910s.

The founding of Les Ballets Suédois in Paris in 1920, can be seen as a continuation of his art collecting – reflecting the vision to see his paintings in movement on the stage. As designers Rolf de Maré engaged several of the painters he had been collecting and the visual aspect became very important in the many exciting experiments the company undertook during its five years existence. Les Ballets Suédois became a magnet for painters, composers and other artists in Paris of the 1920s, a hothouse for new ideas and a meeting place for modernism.

Although Mr de Maré lost a fortune on his ballet company, he did not loose his interest in dance and in 1933 he opened the world's first museum and research institute for dance in Paris, Les Archives internationales de la Danse, and later on parts of its collections were transferred to Stockholm where they served as the nucleus of Dansmuseet which opened in the Royal Opera House in 1953.