Modernism - The Renewal Of Painting 1908-41
31 Mar - 26 Aug 2012
MODERNISM - THE RENEWAL OF PAINTING 1908-41
31 March – 26 August 2012
When ARoS opens the exhibition ‘MODERNISM. THE RENEWAL OF PAINTING 1908-41’ on 30 March 2012, it will be the first time the museum has presented its unique collection of Danish modernists in the company of and in contrast to a number of major international models. By means of loans from both Denmark and abroad, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and Moderna Museet in Stockholm, visitors will have the chance to see artists such as Paul Cézanne, Fernand Léger and Robert Delaunay alongside outstanding Danish modernists such as Vilhelm Lundstrøm, Harald Giersing, Edvard Weie and Olaf Rude.
ARoS today owns what is perhaps the finest collection of Danish modernist paintings from the beginning of the 20th century, among them several major works that have already been assured of their place in Danish art history. Over recent years, it has been a major wish on the part of ARoS to set up a through-going and insightful research programme relating to the collection in order thereby to achieve greater knowledge relating especially of the most striking works in the collection. This has now been achieved.
The exhibition in ARoS and the accompanying book thus provide a vibrant insight into one of the most colourful periods in modern Danish art, in which we gain a close knowledge of the artists, their thoughts, struggles and ambitions relating to the development of a new Danish painting. In addition, we are provided with the background to the way in which several of the works came into being. This covers their international sources of inspiration and not least the way in which, in their day, they were received by the press and the public.
THE EXHIBITION
MODERNISM. THE RENEWAL OF PAINTING 1908-41 is a vibrant comprehensive exhibition of paintings, photographs and words in which the ARoS collection of modernist works is at the centre of an artistically broad panorama taking into account the contemporary background in which inspirations and attitudes meet and interact across national borders and artistic minds. The exhibition provides a new and quite different insight into one of the most colourful periods in recent Danish art. It gives visitors a close insight into the various artists and their ambitions and struggles to create “new painting” – a painting that by virtue of its new idiom and its confrontation with out-dated naturalist painting opposed the established idea of “real” art and consequently created a sensation among the public.
SCANDAL
It may seem surprising that the modernist paintings that we today know as some of the most beautiful in Danish art scandalised the public on first appearing a hundred years ago. The reason for this was simply that young artists were unwilling to follow the example of their predecessors and simply reproduce reality as it looked, but on the contrary sought to create a new modernist painting based solely on aesthetic and subjective principles. They derived their inspiration mainly from Paris and contemporary French art. Lundstrøm, Giersing, Weie, Rude, Isaksson, Swane and others all sought this new quality and gave it a personal and national expression in their paintings.
Right from its start, the 20th century in Europe saw rapid progress both technical and intellectual. In France, Picasso and Braque created cubism and Matisse produced fauvism. Albert Einstein developed his theories of relativism. Schönberg composed music using the twelve-tone scale and Stravinsky created The Rite of Spring in homage to the new age. And outside the artists’ studios, reality was marked by a host of new technical advances: electric light, cars, aeroplanes, films and radio. But only occasionally did motifs taken from everyday life make their mark on modernist visual art. The Danish artists preferred to seek beauty in art’s own world.
CLEAR COLOURS AND ABSTRACT COMPOSITIONS
Cubism and expressionism were the order of the day during the First World War, when bright colours, abstract compositions and collages made their appearance. There was an intense period of exhibitions, and private collections were established at a speed never previously seen in Denmark.
The Danish modernists closely followed the trends of the time – travelling to Paris, then the centre of world art, taking inspiration from the merchant Christian Tetzen-Lund’s amazing private collection and studying books and periodicals in order to keep right up to date. The result can be seen in the exhibition, in which the Danish works hang side by side with their international models.
Edvard Weie and Jens Adolf Jerichau are seen alongside works by Paul Cézanne; Harald Giersing’s “Footballers. Sofus Heading” hangs side by side with Robert Delaunay’s “Equippe de Cardiff’, Olaf Rude’s “St George and the Dragon” and Jais Nielsen’ “Frederik VII Handing the Deeds for Jægersborg Palace to Countess Danner” are seen beside Roger de la Fresnaye’s “Artillerie” etc. etc.
OVER 100 PAINTINGS
The following Danish artists are represented in MODERNISM. THE RENEWAL OF PAINTING 1908-41: Edvard Weie, Sigurd Swane, Harald Giersing, Vilhelm Lundstrøm, William Scharff, Olaf Rude, Jens Adolf Jerichau, Karl Larsen, Ebba Carstensen, Jais Nielsen, Svend Johansen,and Franciska Clausen. Foreign artists will include such names as Paul Cézanne, Fernand Léger, Robert Delaunay, Roger de la Fresnaye and Nils Dardel.
In addition to the roughly 100 paintings – some 50 of which have been loaned from other Danish sources or abroad – there will be screens in the exhibition illustrating how van Gogh, Pablo Picasso and others inspired the Danish painters via their techniques, colours and compositions.
The exhibition has been curated by the art historian Lennart Gottlieb, who over a long period of time has intensively researched into Danish modernism and been responsible for a large number of publications and exhibitions on Danish modernism and its artists. He was awarded the degree of Dr. Phil. in the autumn of 2011 for a dissertation on the Danish modernists.
31 March – 26 August 2012
When ARoS opens the exhibition ‘MODERNISM. THE RENEWAL OF PAINTING 1908-41’ on 30 March 2012, it will be the first time the museum has presented its unique collection of Danish modernists in the company of and in contrast to a number of major international models. By means of loans from both Denmark and abroad, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and Moderna Museet in Stockholm, visitors will have the chance to see artists such as Paul Cézanne, Fernand Léger and Robert Delaunay alongside outstanding Danish modernists such as Vilhelm Lundstrøm, Harald Giersing, Edvard Weie and Olaf Rude.
ARoS today owns what is perhaps the finest collection of Danish modernist paintings from the beginning of the 20th century, among them several major works that have already been assured of their place in Danish art history. Over recent years, it has been a major wish on the part of ARoS to set up a through-going and insightful research programme relating to the collection in order thereby to achieve greater knowledge relating especially of the most striking works in the collection. This has now been achieved.
The exhibition in ARoS and the accompanying book thus provide a vibrant insight into one of the most colourful periods in modern Danish art, in which we gain a close knowledge of the artists, their thoughts, struggles and ambitions relating to the development of a new Danish painting. In addition, we are provided with the background to the way in which several of the works came into being. This covers their international sources of inspiration and not least the way in which, in their day, they were received by the press and the public.
THE EXHIBITION
MODERNISM. THE RENEWAL OF PAINTING 1908-41 is a vibrant comprehensive exhibition of paintings, photographs and words in which the ARoS collection of modernist works is at the centre of an artistically broad panorama taking into account the contemporary background in which inspirations and attitudes meet and interact across national borders and artistic minds. The exhibition provides a new and quite different insight into one of the most colourful periods in recent Danish art. It gives visitors a close insight into the various artists and their ambitions and struggles to create “new painting” – a painting that by virtue of its new idiom and its confrontation with out-dated naturalist painting opposed the established idea of “real” art and consequently created a sensation among the public.
SCANDAL
It may seem surprising that the modernist paintings that we today know as some of the most beautiful in Danish art scandalised the public on first appearing a hundred years ago. The reason for this was simply that young artists were unwilling to follow the example of their predecessors and simply reproduce reality as it looked, but on the contrary sought to create a new modernist painting based solely on aesthetic and subjective principles. They derived their inspiration mainly from Paris and contemporary French art. Lundstrøm, Giersing, Weie, Rude, Isaksson, Swane and others all sought this new quality and gave it a personal and national expression in their paintings.
Right from its start, the 20th century in Europe saw rapid progress both technical and intellectual. In France, Picasso and Braque created cubism and Matisse produced fauvism. Albert Einstein developed his theories of relativism. Schönberg composed music using the twelve-tone scale and Stravinsky created The Rite of Spring in homage to the new age. And outside the artists’ studios, reality was marked by a host of new technical advances: electric light, cars, aeroplanes, films and radio. But only occasionally did motifs taken from everyday life make their mark on modernist visual art. The Danish artists preferred to seek beauty in art’s own world.
CLEAR COLOURS AND ABSTRACT COMPOSITIONS
Cubism and expressionism were the order of the day during the First World War, when bright colours, abstract compositions and collages made their appearance. There was an intense period of exhibitions, and private collections were established at a speed never previously seen in Denmark.
The Danish modernists closely followed the trends of the time – travelling to Paris, then the centre of world art, taking inspiration from the merchant Christian Tetzen-Lund’s amazing private collection and studying books and periodicals in order to keep right up to date. The result can be seen in the exhibition, in which the Danish works hang side by side with their international models.
Edvard Weie and Jens Adolf Jerichau are seen alongside works by Paul Cézanne; Harald Giersing’s “Footballers. Sofus Heading” hangs side by side with Robert Delaunay’s “Equippe de Cardiff’, Olaf Rude’s “St George and the Dragon” and Jais Nielsen’ “Frederik VII Handing the Deeds for Jægersborg Palace to Countess Danner” are seen beside Roger de la Fresnaye’s “Artillerie” etc. etc.
OVER 100 PAINTINGS
The following Danish artists are represented in MODERNISM. THE RENEWAL OF PAINTING 1908-41: Edvard Weie, Sigurd Swane, Harald Giersing, Vilhelm Lundstrøm, William Scharff, Olaf Rude, Jens Adolf Jerichau, Karl Larsen, Ebba Carstensen, Jais Nielsen, Svend Johansen,and Franciska Clausen. Foreign artists will include such names as Paul Cézanne, Fernand Léger, Robert Delaunay, Roger de la Fresnaye and Nils Dardel.
In addition to the roughly 100 paintings – some 50 of which have been loaned from other Danish sources or abroad – there will be screens in the exhibition illustrating how van Gogh, Pablo Picasso and others inspired the Danish painters via their techniques, colours and compositions.
The exhibition has been curated by the art historian Lennart Gottlieb, who over a long period of time has intensively researched into Danish modernism and been responsible for a large number of publications and exhibitions on Danish modernism and its artists. He was awarded the degree of Dr. Phil. in the autumn of 2011 for a dissertation on the Danish modernists.