This essay is an attempt to analyze, understand and reconstruct the Swedish Ballet's last work Relâche (1924) based on Richard Wagner's term Gesamtkunstwerk. Gesamtkunstverk in this case above allmeans the cross-border collaboration of artists and art forms in between, which leads according to Wagnerto a whole which is presented here as The Gesamtkunstwerk. The purpose of this essay is to take part in a work that literally no longer exist, and to try to understand itscultural-historical value. All that remains from the Swedish Ballet, is everything but the dance itself. Still we can take part of the Ballet through the artistic synthesis through innumerable collaborations shown in the sets, costumes, posters and musical compositions. I will in the analysis based on four points, try to find the tones indicating that the work is, on the basis of Wagner's definition, a Gesamtkunstwerk. The essay is also an attempt to show the innovation of this Company and to provide redress to which, according to me, is too forgotten in Swedish historiography. The thesis shows both the Swedish Ballet's historical background which includes previous works built by the same principles of collaboration presented. In this section I will also address something, according to me, important; The Swedish homophobia, mainly in the tabloids during the period in which the essay deals with, and the consequences for the company in question. Then I will analyze Relâche on the basis of the four theses, which, according to my investigation shows that the work is a Gesamtkunstwerk.

This essay is a comparative study of two sculptures with the same motive and title, The Dance, by Ellen Roosval: a freestanding sculpture created in 1925 and a relief sculpture from 1933. The essay has two objectives: to analyse these works of art and to highlight the artist Ellen Roosval as an example of a female artist in the early 20th century. Roosval’s reworking of the free-standing sculpture into a relief generates multiple transformations. The research questions in the current study are: how the reception of the works relates to the viewer; how typology, site and material affect the design and expression; and how the two sculptures relate to the interwar period aesthetics, dance and the motive. In the analysis of both works aspects of their meaning in relation to the beholder’s experience have been crucial. The applied method of analysis originates from Wolfgang Kemp as developed by Jessica Sjöholm Skrubbe, with particular emphasis on the beholder’s movements, the meaning of the term site-specific and the impact of the base. The study begins with a general background on the situation for female sculptors in the early 20th century, the artist Ellen Roosval, and dance. The dance section also introduces the dance company The Swedish Ballet (1920-25) that the two versions of The Dance were a tribute to. Then follows a contextualized analysis of the works focusing on the formal elements, the different sites, bases and the beholder’s movements. Next follows an analysis of typologies, materials and stylistic expressions as well as the shaping of the human body, nudity and movements. Roosval’s The Dance 1933 is compared both to the relief The Dance by Antoine Bourdelle from 1912 and to the Swedish Ballet performances. The analysis concludes with a discussion of how the site relates to the choice of materials and how aesthetics and dance relate to the period 1920s. The results demonstrate aspects of various transformations in relation to the beholders experience. The final discussion concludes on Roosval’s norm-breaking achievements, which inspired the title of this essay: The Resistance of Time.