What's not to like? : Historiebruk kring Ivan Aguéli 1920-2020

Sammanfattning: This essay studies the use of history concerning the Swedish nineteenth century painter Ivan Aguéli. It places itself in the field of didactics of history where, in this case, the use of history on a societal scale is being analyzed. With the theoretic typology of Klas-Göran Karlsson both the interests, needs and functions of the use of Aguéli can be illuminated and compared. The groups of people that use the memory of Aguéli in the Swedish culture of history are very broad. To sort these out, the essay borrows the theoretical framework stemmed from Jörn Rüsen and applied by Anders Dybelius. Using this analytical typology of the educational, popular, and commemorative spheres, the journey of Aguéli’s memory in Sweden between 1920 and 2020 can be illuminated and understood. The empirical material is very broad and includes, among others, novels, exhibitions, a rock band, a museum, biographies, and newspapers. Regarding the theoretical typologies in the essay, a deductive method is used to sort these artifacts in their relation to their abode. Ivan Aguéli was introduced in the Swedish historical culture after his death. He is remembered mainly as one of the great Swedish modernist landscape-painters, and his extravagant personality and bohemian lifestyle has made him an object of both reverence and wonderment. But why has this person been used and remembered in this way? Ivan Aguéli has often been described as a mystery. This is the one main quality that has followed his memory through the millennia, disregarding which group has been using it. This study points out that the refusal to un-mystify Aguéli has kept his memory in the style of a “bottomless well”, where different groups and individuals has been able to pick up quality’s that answer to their own particular interests and needs. This “bottomless well” contains a flurry of positive characteristics and has something that is appealing for everyone: what’s not to like? Ivan Aguéli is more popular today than ever before. His legacy as an artist is getting challenged when much of his metaphysical, political, and philosophical legacy becomes accessible through translation from French and Arabic into Swedish. Aguéli’s theories of the correlation between religious truths and the political organization of society answers to an increased need for both political and spiritual renewal. This fact makes this essay, and the use of Ivan Aguéli’s memory, an example of how history is being produced and used as a tool to aid man in her aspirations.