In Memory of Gert Z Nordström
Gert Z Nordström (1931–2025), Sweden’s first professor of Art Education and Honorary Doctor at the Faculty of Fine, Applied and Performing Arts since 2012, has passed away. He was a pioneer in the field of art education in Sweden – a thinker, artist, researcher, and educator who transformed how we understand the image as a form of knowledge and communication.
After studying art at HDK-Valand in Gothenburg, he worked within artist collectives before training as an art teacher. As an engaged and often controversial educator, he drew early attention for his ideas about the role of images in society. Following the student uprisings of 1968, he was appointed by the government and Olof Palme as Director of Studies and Deputy Head of the Art Teacher Education Programme at Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm, where he went on to renew the entire discipline.
Together with colleagues such as Christer Romilson, he introduced visual semiotics and the concepts of visual language and visual communication, thereby establishing art education (bildpedagogik) as a field of research in its own right. In addition to his academic work, he was active as an artist, author, and cultural writer for publications including Dagens Nyheter, Aftonbladet, and Paletten.
After more than forty years in Stockholm, he returned to Gothenburg and, at the age of 82, began teaching in the art education track of the teacher education programme at HDK-Valand – on the condition that he would teach first-year students, which he did with the same passion and dedication as always.
Gert Z Nordström’s life’s work has had a profound impact on the image as a field of knowledge and on the development of art education in Swedish schools.