Danish Art - Contemporary Art

Contemporary Art

Collections of modern art enjoy unusually attractive settings at the Louisiana Museum north of Copenhagen and at the North Jutland Art Museum in Aalborg. The National Museum of Art and the Glyptotek, both in Copenhagen, contain treasures of Danish and international art.

• Richard Winther(1926–2007) a talented Danish artist, started his long career in the arts aged 10. He worked on themes exploring mediums such as painting, photography, and ceramics. He is considered as one of the founders of the Linien II movement, part of concrete art at the time. Several known artists today have been greatly influenced by Richard Winther. Many of his paintings were done on canvas and masonite, but in an effort to simplify his art he not only diminished the number of colors he used but also switched to paint on cardboard. He was not shy about revisiting a theme and many years later amended some of his works. Also several of his works are presented on both sides of the same cardboard. He used photographic cameras to compose art and when he was not satisfied with the capabilities of the machines, he started making his own designs. He is known for his 360 degree cameras, instruments which are objects of art in themselves. Among the many prizes he was awarded, were the Eckersberg Medal (1971), Thorvaldsen Medal (1997) and the Prince Eugen Medal.

• Per Kirkeby (born 1938) has produced an impressive body of neo-expressionistic artwork on masonite, canvas, blackboards and paper as well as various sculptures and even architecture. Initially interested in pop art, his colourful paintings have been exhibited widely, most recently at the Tate Modern in London. Educated as a geologist, his interest in terrain and nature in general is still in evidence in his painting.

• Merete Barker (born 1944) uses sketches and photographs from her many travels as the basis for highly expressive paintings where it is often difficult to distinguish between nature and culture.

• Elmgreen and Dragset have worked together since 1995 producing work which explores the relationship between art, architecture and design. Michael Elmgreen (born 1961), a Dane, and Ingar Dragset (born 1968), a Norwegian draw on institutional critique, social politics, performance and architecture, reconfiguring everyday objects and situations with wit and subversive humour.

• Tal R, born in Israel in 1967, produces wild and colourful paintings, combining shapes and imagery with a reduced palette consisting of black, white, pink, green, red, yellow and brown. Inspired by everything from the Holocaust to children's comic books, his widely-exhibited work builds on the old tradition of autonomy and expression.

• Olafur Eliasson (born 1967) has attracted wide interest in his public space exhibitions such as the New York City Waterfalls (2008), the Weather Project at London's Tate Modern gallery in 2003 and the Take Your Time exhibit at MoMA in New York (2008).

• Jeppe Hein (born 1974) produces interactive art works or installations, often activated by the spectator. Among these are his Shaking Cube (2004), Moving Benches (2000), The Curve (2007) and his Space in Action / Action in Space (2002) exhibited at the 2003 Venice Biennale. He is now working on a major exhibit for the Danish pavilion at Expo 2010 in Shanghai.

• Jens Galschiøt (born 1954) political sculptor, often known as using his art to highlight violation of human rights. In the years he has made happenings worldwide, incl. my inner beast in Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, Sweden, France, Norway, Italy, Holand, Spain, and in 1997 the Pillar of Shame in China, Mexico, Brazil.