The British Tate museums have purchased three works by the Sami artist Anders Sunna, known for his political art. Two dark winter landscapes and a painting of a skeleton in a cloak will now be incorporated into the museums' collections, according to Sveriges Radio's Kulturnytt.
Sunna is known for his political art and has often depicted the family's struggle for reindeer herding. At the Venice Biennale 2022, his "Illegal Spirits of Sápmi" was shown, a series of paintings about the family's long-standing conflict with the county administrative board after the new reindeer herding law in 1971.
In the spring, Anders Sunna was reported to the police for, among other things, incitement against a ethnic group by the Swedish Tornedalians' National Association – Tornionlaaksolaiset for a painting of, among others, the association's executive director together with a slaughtered reindeer, a chainsaw and a bucket filled with blood.
Sunna then told SR that the painting is about power structures between different interests. According to Kulturnytt, a decision is expected from the prosecutor in a few weeks.
