Things to do

Our Top Five Art Exhibitions and Museums not to miss this winter

No need to pack your bags for Paris, London or New York to enjoy great works of art. From George Condo’s first time exhibition in Scandinavia, to Edgar Degas, Egyptian treasures or Stanley Kubrick’s American Pop Art, the art world is here in Denmark.

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1. George Condo  describes his art as “artificial realism” and has a.o worked at Warhol’s Factory applying diamond dust to silkscreen when he was part of the wild art scene in New York back in the 1980’s. The exhibition called “The way I think”is part of the Louisiana On Paper series.

He plays around and mixes, distorts and renews material from the art history’s masters such as Velazquez, Manet and Picasso using many elements from his time working with American Pop Art.

As George Condo has never been shown before in Scandinavia, this may be a great occasion to revisit, or visit for the first time, his art’s inventive, amusing and sometimes macabre form.

The exhibition shows his drawings from four decades of work.

When: Until  2 April 2018
Where: Louisiana Museum of Modern Art
Gl Strandvej 13, 3050 Humlebæk
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2.While away an afternoon looking out  at the statue in the middle of Amalienborg Square enjoying the same view as the royals have from their homes – while exploring the Danish royal heritage at the permanent exhibition showing the life of the Danish royal family from 1863 until 1972 at Christian VIII’s palace.

Four generations of royals from the German line – the Glücksburg family – of Christian 9th, Frederik 8th, Christian 10th and Frederik 9th. The rooms and living areas have been recreated to look exactly as they did at the time when they were using them – for instance Christian 9’s study, Queen Louise’s salon, and Christian 10 and Queen Alexandrine’s dinning room.

When: Open Tuesday to Sunday from 11:00 to 16:00
Where: Amalienborg Christian VIII’s Palæ
1257 Copenhagen
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3.Follow nature’s violent change over thousands of years to meet the last hunters, gatherers and fishermen at Moesgaard Museum’s Stone Age exhibition.

Visitors will journey through time to experience the first hunters in search of reindeer just after the last ice age. Here along the coast, humans mastered specialized tools and built boats for sea hunting. At the edge of the forest the first farmers start to cultivate the land. Hierarchies, war and conflict arise.

The exhibit comes to life through multimedia production with landscape models, pop-up figures, movies and narratives that transport you through 6,000 years of dramatic environmental changes with the people living in untamed nature.
Where: Moesgaard Museum
Moesgård Allé 15
8270 Højbjerg
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4. Enjoy the beautiful sculptures of Edgar Degas – now collected in one room as well as the 35 sculptures of Rodin collected at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek  or have a look at the magnificent exhibition about the Egyptian Pharaohs, “Pharaoh – the Face of Power” where the period from 2000 to 1700 Bc is examined.

This period is also known as the “Middle Kingdom” – when after a period of decline strong pharaohs united the country with centralised power. Find out how, more than 4,000 years ago through the construction of personal myths, it was possible to rule a people – a time when there were no spin doctors nor any SoMe.

The museum founded in 1888 by  Carlsberg’s founding father Carl Jacobsen (1842-1914), contains two main departments:the department of Antiquities houses with the collections of Egyptian, Greek, Etruscan and Roman art, and the modern department with its focus on Danish painting and sculpture of the 19th and 20th centuries, and not least the French art of the same period with the large French Impressionism collection as well the more than 40 works by Gauguin.

This museum is like the Louvre in Paris – it can be visited many times.

When: The special Pharaoh exhibition runs until 25 February 2018 ( Tuesdays entrance is free)
Where:  Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek

Dantes Plads 7
1556 København V

5. The French artists from 1900 to 1930 at SMK

Danish artmuseum, Statens Museum for Kunst – with the not very enlightening abrivieation SMK is home to quite a large unik collection of French art with amongst other works by Matisse, Picasso, Braque, Modigliani and Derain. The museums sensational collection is due to art collector Johannes Rump, who during the 1920s created one of the finest collections of Matisse artwork, which he all donated to the museum in 1928. On display is amongst other Matisses paper cutting Zulma, only seldom on disaplay

When: During week 7 everyday even Monday

Where: Statens Museum for Kunst
Sølvgade 48-50
1307 København K

By Karen Covington/ Bente D. Knudsen

Read also our article about the Danish SKAGENSMALERNE – who were much inspired by the French Impressionists. If you have not been yet – do not miss the great exhibition at Skagens Museum