Rolf de Maré

Art collector, ballet director, museum founder
September 19 2008 – February 1 2009

Rolf de Maré is one of the Swedes who have meant most for modern art and dance. He founded the Ballets Suédois in Paris in the 1920s, was among the first collectors of works by modern artists, went on research trips the world over and founded the Dance Museum in Stockholm.
Rolf de Maré was born in Stockholm in 1888, the grandson of Wilhelmina von Hallwyl, the richest woman in Sweden, and he grew up in aristocratic luxury at the Hallwyl Palace. He moved in international high society, associated with artists of the time in Paris and began collecting works by Picasso, Braque, Léger, Brancusi and Dardel, among others. Celebrities of the time, such as Rudolph Valentino, Gloria Swanson and Isadora Duncan, thronged his Parisian home. He also took an interest in dance and made the acquaintance of the Russian choreographer Mikhail Fokin, who had been made famous by the Ballets Russes. In 1920 he created the Ballets Suédois, with dancer Jean Börlin as choreographer. In 5 years he achieved 23 artistically ground-breaking productions, aided by a succession of artists, musicians, authors and film makers, all of whom were to become world famous.

After the Swedish Ballet had been wound up, Rolf went on working for the cause of dance and in the 1930s he founded, in Paris, the world’s first institute of dance research, Les Archives Internationales de la Danse (AID), organised a succession of exhibitions and also arranged choreography competitions, as well as collecting material about dance from all over the world. Rolf de Maré made a unique contribution by filming and documenting dance cultures, above all in Indonesia. He launched future world stars such as Josephine Baker, started the world’s first fashion magazine for men, Monsieur, and for many years ran a coffee farm in Africa.

In 1953 Rolf de Maré opened the Dance Museum in Stockholm, the first and so far only museum of its kind in the world. He died in Barcelona in 1964. He bequeathed his fortune to the Dance Museum and donated the foremost works in his art collection to Moderna Museet in Stockholm.

This exhibition coincides with a new biography: Rolf de Maré – Art collector, ballet director, museum creator – authored by Dance Museum Director Erik Näslund and published by Langenskiöld.