The Nobel Prize medal and diploma awarded to Tomas Tranströmer in 2011 have been donated to the Nobel Prize Museum. The gift highlights the legacy of one of the most celebrated poets of our time and will enhance the museum experience for visitors as well as serve as an entry point for telling the story of his life and work.
Tomas Tranströmer (1931–2015) was one of the greatest poets of our time. His poems illuminate reality with both sharpness and tenderness. In 2011, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature “because, through his condensed, translucent images, he gives us fresh access to reality.”
Tranströmer’s Nobel Prize medal and diploma have now been donated to the museum by his wife, Monica Tranströmer, in connection with a public conversation at the Nobel Prize Museum in which she spoke about her husband’s lifelong writing and poetic universe.
“Tomas Tranströmer’s Nobel Prize medal and diploma are magnificent works of art in themselves. They also give us a new starting point for sharing the story of Tranströmer and his poetry, which has enriched so many readers in Sweden and abroad.”
Anna Rastner, museum director, Nobel Prize Museum
On the left side of the diploma is an artwork created by the artist John Stenborg, and on the right side calligraphy by the calligrapher Annika Rücker. The painting is connected to Tranströmer’s personality and reflects his interest in music. It depicts notes that form a playable musical piece.
“I still want to say that Tranströmer’s diploma image is perhaps the one among the Nobel laureates’ images that I am most proud of. Intricate and simple at the same time, and playable as a musical score for a one-handed composition.”
John Stenborg, artist
Tranströmer was also a gifted pianist. After a stroke late in life, he was paralysed on his right side and could thereafter play the piano only with his left hand.