Envelope from Sweden

Helena Hernmarck

1992

Wool

Minneapolis Institute of Art

The envelope depicted here enclosed a letter to Hernmarck from her aunt Ka Markelius, whose husband was a leading modernist Swedish architect, Sven Markelius. Hernmarck’s relationship with her aunt was especially close, and she recalls days spent at the couple’s modern home outside Stockholm as some of the happiest moments of her childhood. These family relationships were formative to Hernmarck’s development as an individual and an artist. That environment—both physical and conversational—helped her learn to speak the same language as architects and other designers, a great asset to her later artistic career. Hernmarck wove the enve