Finding Grete Stern: The Image Behind Day by Day

The work

Years ago, I found an image on social media and saved it without knowing who had made it. I was drawn to its strange and disturbing mood: a woman facing a man in a suit with a monstrous head. His presence feels threatening, and she seems trapped in the situation.

That image became the starting point for my painting Day by Day. I painted it on brown cardboard, leaving parts of the surface visible and very little around the two figures. The empty space made the scene feel even more uncomfortable. I wanted to keep that sense of tension and sexual threat without explaining too much.

Years later, while scrolling through my phone, I came across this Instagram post about Grete Stern and suddenly recognized the image I had painted. I discovered that it was Stern’s Sueño No. 28: Amor sin ilusión (Dream No. 28: Love Without Illusion), from her Sueños series.

Grete Stern was born in Germany into a Jewish family. She left Germany in 1933, first moving to London and later to Buenos Aires, where she built a new life and became an important figure in modern photography.

Between 1948 and 1951, Stern made around 140 photomontages for the Argentine women’s magazine Idilio. They were based on dreams sent in by female readers. In many of them, women appear under pressure: in difficult relationships, trapped in domestic life, or caught between what they want and what society expects of them. The images often question ideas about marriage, gender and what it meant to be the “good” wife or woman.

Watch Grete Stern’s Sueños on Vimeo →

Explore Grete Stern’s Sueños at MALBA →

Discovering the rest of the Sueños series helped me understand why this particular image had caught my attention years before. The tension between women and men, sexuality, power and powerlessness were already there, all subjects that have long been part of my own work.

I encountered Stern’s work backwards: first the image, then my painting, and only years later the artist’s name and the story behind it. Something in the image had already spoken to me before I knew anything about its history.

This kind of continuous discovery about sources of inspiration, additional layers of meaning, and revisiting topics and materials is intrinsic to my creative process.

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The studio experience

Two hours in the studio, just you or you and one other person. Pick a technique and take home what you make. Materials and fika included.

It works as a birthday or anniversary gift, a creative date instead of a restaurant, an afternoon for two friends, or a parent and child from age ten up. Same price whether you come alone or bring someone. 1 000 kr per session (1 or 2 people) · Roslagsgatan 21, Stockholm