The Artful Image. The Harleem Mannerists 1580-1600
10. October 2009 – 17. January 2010
Imitation and invention are key words where Haarlem mannerism is concerned. Haarlem mannerism challenged widespread understandings of graphic and printing art while also allowing interpretation to become a form of art in itself.
During the years 1580-1600, the Dutch town of Haarlem developed into a centre for European printing arts. This was the focus of the exhibition The Artful Image – Haarlem mannerism. The exhibition contained examples of the often curious, fascinating, and generally remarkable images that characterise the art of Haarlem – and that of the Netherlands in general – at the dawn of the 17th century and the Dutch golden age.
The exhibition focused on the tension between the engraving’s dual function as both an independent art form and a reproduction medium used to replicate and duplicate the paintings and sculptures of well-known artists. By taking a closer look at both the inventions of the Haarlem artists and the way in which engravers translated original works into graphic prints, the exhibition illustrates the notion that the roles of the engraver as both copyist and creative artist were mutually supportive.
The Study Group
A defining characteristic of the Haarlem mannerists was that they actively thought about the role of engraving as a communicator and messenger of graphic art, and about the skill in imitating original works that the engravers of that era were expected to possess. These considerations were largely stimulated by the study group established by Hendrick Goltzius in the 1580s together with painters Karel van Mander and Cornelis van Haarlem. It was from within this group that Haarlem mannerism developed.
Following study trips made by Goltzius and Jacob Matham individually to Italy in the 1590s, they published a series of reproductions focusing on Venetian painting in particular. The Venetian masters were particularly renowned for their painterly use of colour. The printmaker’s mission was to achieve a translation of the colourful painting in which not the colour was to be conveyed, but its effect.
Sculptures of Antiquity
In addition to painting, the engravers were also supposed to be capable of copying sculptures. The sculptures of antiquity were a major source of inspiration for the art of the 1500s, which also left clear traces in Haarlem printmaking. They created a series of reproductions in which they tried to depict the actual act of observing the antique sculptures. They thereby emphasise that the print was meant to serve as a type of representative for their original, which could then be studied far and wide.
Thus the prints of the Haarlem mannerists explore how other works of art can be copied, while the individual copies go on to become an independent form of art in their own right, inspiring the creation of new images. In such a way printmaking could be seen as the real origin of the creative process.
The engraving collection / Two exhibitions annually
With the 2009 exhibitions of Jakob S. Boeskov and Haarlem mannerism, the National Gallery of Denmark is working to build awareness of the Royal Collection of Prints and Drawings and the museum’s research into this rich collection of some 240,000 drawings, prints and photographs. The retrospective exhibitions thereby serve to focus on the field of artistic endeavour that the Collection of Prints and Drawings represent. Click here for more information.
The exhibition was supported by: Beckett-Fonden
Nicolai Abildgaard. Revolution Embodied
29. August 2009 – 24. January 2010
Revolution, absolute monarchy, serfdom, with the revolt against hierarchies, human rights, censorship and freedom of expression. The end of the 1700s was a turbulent period in which many of the ideas that constitute the foundation of our modern society took shape. Nicolai Abildgaard’s works encapsulate all these radical changes and more. Through depiction of the body, he expresses the upheaval of his time, the uproar that reached into every nook of society. His uproar was not only artistic, but also political.
The grand finale
The exhibition was the third in a series after exhibitions at the Louvre in Paris and Hamburger Kunsthalle. The Body in Uproar at the National Gallery of Denmark was the largest to date and showed a wide selection of Abildgaard’s production, spanning many media types.
Five themes
The exhibition was divided into five themes. We followed Abildgaard through these themes from his early years in Rome, through his work for the royal palace, to his literary and political interests, and finally ending in the private.
Nature Strikes Back. Man and Nature in Western Art
9. October 2009 – 5. April 2010
To coincide with the UN climate meeting in Copenhagen we have put together an exhibition based on the museum’s collections.
The exhibition addresses humankind’s relationship with nature from antiquity through to the present day, and is arranged by topic, so that each hall confronts one theme as it has been portrayed throughout the history of art. Nature Strikes Back consists exclusively of works from the National Gallery of Denmark’s own collections.
Our intention with the exhibition is not to claim a moral or political stake in the climate debate, but rather to provide a historical, philosophical, and in particular an art-historical framework by which to understand the current perception of nature in order to perhaps gain a more nuanced image of the world’s current climate condition. The exhibition was created by two of the museum’s researchers, Hanne Kolind Poulsen and Henrik Holm.
It is not directly about the climate. Rather, it is about humankind’s relationship with nature as seen through western art. But by contemplating art, science, and philosophy in a single context, it is possible to reflect on questions such as these:
- Where did things go wrong?
- How has our relationship to nature changed?
- How do scientific revolutions leave their mark in art?
- How does landscape art change
- What does the Apocalypse look like?
We have gathered works that cross periods, genres and nationalities in a single collection centring around 5 themes:
1. The exploitation of nature
Western civilisation’s exploitation of nature created the foundation for our world. But the expression now threatens to push the relative balance of the Earth’s climate beyond a critical point. Nature reacts with a form of punishment. The need to exploit nature has left deep traces in art and culture, and in art we can see how exploitation of nature has been depicted in various ways.
2. Man and nature
The Man and Nature topic is divided into People in Nature and Nature in People. In People in Nature we follow humankind’s place in nature from the Renaissance via Dutch works from the 1600s to the new relationship between people and nature that grows forth in the modernist era. The heading Nature in People asks the question of what peoples’ inner nature is.
3. Nature as system
In the theme Nature as system we investigate how humankind through time has tried to understand nature from various fundamental assumptions about how nature is ordered. We have taken a focused look at how artworks relate to the order of nature from the Middle Ages until today. In the section The Other- outside the system, we observe that there is much that falls outside the dominant system and thereby assumes the character of being different or the “other.”
4. Landscape
Landscape is the fourth main theme, which is divided into Landscape ideologies and Paradise. In Landscape ideologies we look at the different ages of the landscape and its different meanings within art. In Paradise we can see that the depiction of the haven paradise has been the prototype for “good nature” since the early Middle Ages. Only with the flood does “evil nature” begin to plague humankind with its “whims.”
5. Deluges, Judgement Day, Hell – and really bad weather
Judgment day rhetoric is prevalent in the climate debate, present in both religious and ideological terms. At bottom it is a fear of nature that finds expression in visions of judgement and the flood. Just as catastrophic speculation has played a critical role in our culture since the dawn of time, the concept has also played a central role in the visual arts- and here it can be said in all seriousness that nature is striking back!
RETHINK Relations
31. October 2009 – 5. April 2010
The exhibition RETHINK Relations is the contribution by the National Gallery of Denmark to exhibition RETHINK Contemporary Art & Climate Change made in collaboration between the National Gallery of Denmark, Nikolaj Copenhagen Contemporary Art Centre, Den Frie Centre of Contemporary Art and The Alexandra Institute.
The exhibitions at Nikolaj Copenhagen Contemporary Art Centre and Den Frie Centre of Contemporary Art can no longer be seen, whereas the exhibition af the National Gallery of Denmark will continue till the 5th. april 2010.
A big website has been made for RETHINK Contemporary Art & Climate Change.
Artists featured in the exhibition: Tomás Saraceno, Olafur Eliasson, Allora & Calzadilla, Henrik Håkansson.
Climate change in the arts
The National Gallery of Denmark is focusing in its exhibition on the increased awareness that appears to have emerged as a result of the global climate debate.
The new understanding of climate change and its predicted global increase have clearly shown how human behaviour in one geographical region can affect life in another, how individuals can impact upon other human beings’ living conditions, how certain populations’ lifestyle affects the environment, and how changes in the natural world conversely can induce migration and societal changes. The exhibition features works by visual artists who in differing ways are interested in these new, complex chains of cause and effect.
New ways of conceiving the world
Global warming requires new ways of conceiving the world that often transcend current national, geographical and social divisions and break down the boundary between categories such as nature vs. culture, individual vs. society, national vs. international and local vs. foreign.
These works instead point out the new potential for sharing skills, experience, social interaction and forms of organisation offered by a new kind of universalism contingent upon diversity, change and mutuality.
This project was supported by Nykredit.
Bouncing Pranks. A land of adventure between art and play
10. September 2009 – 1. August 2010
At the exhibition Bouncing Pranks, the youngest museum guests (ages 1-6) explored the world of art using their entire body. Whether they took to the “super mattress”, “tentacle forest”, or the “board”, they were sure to experience a unique entryway into the world of art.
With references to Alice in Wonderland, Harry Potter and the Wizard of Oz, the Museum’s youngest guests could romp through art installations and use the power of the body to become a part of the art. The elements in the exhibition were designed to encourage fantasy play and instil in young children the idea that the Museum is not only for adults. Dream consultants Karl Stampes and Esben Brandt Møller were behind the exhibition. The exhibition presented:
The Super Mattress
An upholstered mattress with blue and white stripes in size XXXXL forms the setting for an interactive jumping fortress, where the smallest children can become one with the mobile mega-bed. On the mattress there is a (perhaps) living rag doll made of felt and fabric, with which the children can jump around. The mattress invites one to jump, do somersaults, roll around and play. The installation can also function as a place to rest and of course a place for dreams and ideas to unfold.
Chalk board and foam rubber thingies
An enormous chalk board winds its way from the floor up the wall. Here the children can use big pieces of chalk to write on both floor and wall. There are large sponges to make a clean slate or just to stand on if you are not so tall.
Tentacle forest
Tentacle means ventilation hose. And in the Bouncing Prank’s universe, it turns into something alive, something to climb up and down using invisible vacuum cleaners at the top. Here the children can try to reach the hoses just to observe them, while the hoses move through space.
All in all, Bouncing Pranks was an exhibition that acted as an oasis for young children. This was where inner adventures as a hose hunter, mattress tamer, or chalk artist could unfold.
Photographs. The Royal Collection of Graphic Arts
27. March – 29. August 2010
These works are experimental and conceptual, narrative, intimate, and at times transgressive. The Photographs exhibition showcased use of the photographic medium in the graphic arts. It began with the photography collection of the Royal Collection of Graphic Art, which spans the last 50 years with individual works from the 1920s and 1940s.
Five Themes
In this exhibition a wide selection of works was shown, divided into five themes: Form and Experiment, Rupture, Action, Seeing the world and Staging
The exhibition crossed time and place, which is why some of the works could naturally lend themselves to other themes. The exhibition presented the concept that critical ideas, concepts and strategies at play in the history of art and photography cannot be separated , but are rather dependent on one another.
Unique Art Photography
As the photo collection is part of a graphic arts contextualisation, it has acquired a profile that sets it apart from the collections in photography museums. The art photographers have often cultivated a relationship with the camera that was more free and experimental, but perhaps one that is also more disrespectful, by producing blurred photographs, while the conventional photographers have tended to explore the expressive possibilities of photography in a considerably more stringent way in relation to the medium’s own inherent discourse and history.
What artist were included?
Helge Bertram (DK), Niels Bonde (DK), Kaspar Bonnén (DK), Peter Brandes (DK), Stig Brøgger (DK), Claus Carstensen (DK), Tacita Dean (ENG), Olafur Eliasson (DK/ISL), Michael Elmgreen & Ingar Dragset (DK/NO), Sylvie Fleury (SCH), Erik A. Frandsen (DK), Anja Franke (DK), Poul Gernes (DK), Douglas Gordon (ENG), Per Bak Jensen (DK), Kirsten Justesen (DK), Mike Kelley (USA), Joachim Koester (DK), Elke Krystufek, (ØST), Peter Land (DK), Sarah Lucas (ENG), Man Ray (USA), Jonathan Meese (TY), Albert Mertz (DK), Mogens Otto Nielsen (DK), Hermann Nitsch (AT), Lene Adler Petersen (DK), Sigmar Polke (DE), Richard Prince (USA), Jesper Rasmussen (DK), Jytte Rex (DK), Gerhard Richter (DE), Ane Mette Ruge (DK), Ed Ruscha (USA), David Shrigley (ENG), Dash Snow (USA), Erik Steffensen (DK), Alfred Stieglitz (USA), Superflex (DK), William Louis Sørensen (DK), Wolfgang Tillmans (DE), Rosemarie Trockel (DE) og Gitte Villesen (DK).
Lindsay Seers. It has to be this way²
22. May – 26. September 2010
The mystery surrounding her stepsister’s disapperance
Lindsay Seers seeks to unravel the mystery surrounding the strange disappearance of her stepsister Christine Parkes who suffered memory loss following a moped accident in Rome. Taking her point of departure for It has to be this way² in old letters, her stepsister’s notes, her mother’s memories and a box of photographs, Lindsay Seers sets out to find the truth.
From Rome to Ghana
Lindsay Seers traced Christine’s footsteps to Rome, where her research formed the basis for the installation It has to be this way shown at Matt’s Gallery in 2009. In this new work, the artist’s investigations take her to Ghana where she, like Christine before her, travels in colonial costume with a video camera hidden in her military hat.
Traumas of the Gold Coast and the family
She visits the slave fortresses scattered along the former Gold Coast, built hundreds of years ago by European colonisers and privateers including the British and Danish. The trauma of the country’s complex colonial past and the muted history of slavery become intermingled with Seers’ own traumatic family history, which involves not only the mystery of her missing stepsister but also her stepfather’s participation in diamond smuggling.
About the artist
The British artist Lindsay Seers’ work for the x-room is an installation combining film and architecture. Seers bases her work on archival research, investigations into photographic and filmic technologies and on historic events and artefacts, but alongside this ‘rational’ approach her work is equally governed by the pursuit of chance procedures and connections. She often lets others make selections from material that will determine the development of her work.
The Flower and the Bee
20. May 2009 – 24. October 2010
An exhibition about kisses, sweethearts and love
“The Flower and the Bee” was an exhibition for children aged between 6 – 12 about kisses, sweethearts and love. It took original works from the collections and with a twinkle in its eye told about where we come from.
Original artworks
In the exhibition there were original artworks from the Museum’s collections by Asger Jorn, Cranach, Bertel Thorvaldsen and Kirsten Justesen.
Bjørn Nørgaard. Re-model the World
16. april – 24. oktober 2010
Many are familiar with Bjørn Nørgaard’s work from the tapestries for the Great Hall at Christiansborg Palace (the seat of the Danish Parliament), from The Horse Sacrifice – or from his recent project of creating a tomb for the current Queen and Prince Consort. Bjørn Nørgaard is very much present in the public eye as an artist, debater, critic, and agent provocateur.
About the exhibition
The exhibition Re-modelling the World presented Bjørn Nørgaard as an uncompromising artist who is always challenging habitual notions about art. Here you could get an overview of – and immerse yourself in – the work of one of the greatest Danish contemporary artists. His art is overwhelming, and he is immensely productive. The exhibition presented a total of 115 works from his almost 50 years as an active artist, showcasing his life’s work so far in chronological order, beginning in the mid-1960s and leading up to our present day. The works themselves spanned the media of sculpture, actions, installations, film, and graphic art.
Bjørn Nørgaard remodels the world over and over again. He examines and explores materials, shapes, cultural notions, and ethical issues. The exhibition title is, then, a reference to Bjørn Nørgaard’s way of working, but also to a concrete work.
Christian Lemmerz. LARGO
13. May 2009 – 5. December 2010
Remember Death
Don’t forget that you will die! Christian Lemmerz’ new exhibition Largo goes against the tide of the contemporary blinkered worship of all that is up-beat and youthful. Lemmerz has produced a number of completely new works in bronze, creating a monumental installation reminiscent of a chapel, paying homage to slowness and focuses on death. The installation consists of seven large reliefs and five free-standing sculptures. All the works exhibited weigh between a half and a whole ton.
LARGO
In music, largo is a tempo marking used for a broad, slow movement which often serves as the basis for a particularly solemn, earnest, or grieving emotion. Largos are elegiac, melancholy melodies that progress with dignity. “Largo” is sombreness and gravitas embedded in the choice of format, content, and material.
Symbols
The works all refer to Christian burial rituals and their appurtenances. The symbolism insistently confronts the viewer face to face with the long period between birth and death. We find an oversized fetus, a closed coffin, and a golden flower lying on the floor like a severed head. The seven reliefs refer to the seven days of the Creation.
About Christian Lemmerz
Born in 1959 in Karlsruhe , Germany. Studied sculpture at the Carrara Academy of Fine Arts, Italy, from 1978 to 1982; arrived in Copenhagen in 1982, where he attended the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts (1982-86) and was associated with the working collective Værkstedet Værst (“The Workshop Worst”) (1982-84), whose members also included Erik A. Frandsen and Lars Nørgård.
From 1985 onwards he worked with the painter Michael Kvium in the performance group Værst, and since then they have worked on several joint projects, most recently the 8-hour long silent movie The Wake (2000), based on James Joyce’s novel Finnegans Wake (1939).
In terms of exhibitions his breakthrough came in 1986 at the generation exhibition Limelight at Charlottenborg. Since then he has made his mark with a long line of exhibitions, primarily in Europe and the USA, e.g. in Brussels, Cologne, Barcelona, The Hague, Paris, Antwerp, Toronto, Sao Paolo, and New York.
Rotting Pigs
In public life Lemmerz is perhaps best known from the scandal exhibition “Scene” in 1994 at Esbjerg Kunstmuseum, of which the rotting corpses of pigs lying in transparent boxes formed a vital part of.
He is represented at The Saatchi Collection in England, and at several Danish art museums, for instance ARoS, Horsens Kunstmuseum and Statens Museum for Kunst.
Thomás Saranceno. Biospheres
31. October 2009 – 20. December 2010
In the Gallery’s Sculpture Street, the large, glass-covered space between the red and white buildings, you can experience Tomás Saraceno’s floating transparent orbs; the work Biospheres. Several of the spheres contain plant-based ecosystems, while the largest of them invites spectators to step inside.
About the artist
Saraceno originally trained as an architect, and his biospheres can be seen as models representing his vision for alternative types of social spaces and habitats. Taking a metaphorical, poetic approach to serious subjects such as the overpopulation of Earth, environmental issues, and migration, Tomas Saraceno seeks to create a new relation between culture and nature. His works are often based on careful scientific studies of e.g. the formation of clouds, soap bubbles, and the geometric principles of spider webs. Saraceno’s almost Utopian/unearthly sculptures and installations challenge our perception of the environment and the social landscape.
In this context Saraceno is particularly interested in airspace (in other, outdoor projects he quite specifically works with the sky), which to him represents a “free” space, a space that is not subject to national restrictions and which still allows for the free movements across borders.
Utopian re-imaginings of the world
Saraceno is an example of an artist who addresses the complex climate issues of the world without applying a nostalgic perspective. Rather, he wishes to utilise the consequences of the ongoing global changes and technological developments in a positive, Utopian rethinking of the way in which we have organised the world.
Visit the museum
Visit the museum
Visit SMK
Opening hours and other practical info
SMK is the national gallery of Denmark and the largest art museum in the country.Visit the museum
Calendar
Guided tours, workshops, concerts and much more
What's going on at SMK? See all coming events in our calendar.Visit the museum
SMK Annual Pass
A full year of art
Unlock a year of art experiences with SMK Annual Pass. We offer four different types of annual pass ...See also
Past exhibition
Exhibitions 2007
Special exhibitions of the year
Being on the edge of the world, coming home, seeing an outsider in french art, a crystal world and m ...Past exhibition
Exhibitions 2012
Special exhibitions of the year
Featuring life and death, Matisse, Emy Wardill, German world images and more.Past exhibition