Louisiana Museum of Modern Art

The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art is an art museum located on the shore of the Øresund Sound in Humlebæk, 35 km (22 mi) north of Copenhagen, Denmark. It is the most visited art museum in Denmark,[2] and has an extensive permanent collection of modern and contemporary art, dating from World War II to the present day; in addition, it has a comprehensive programme of special exhibitions. The museum is also acknowledged as a milestone in modern Danish architecture, and is noted for its synthesis of art, architecture, and landscape, such as was showcased in an installation entitled "Riverbed" shown in 2014-2015. The museum occasionally also stages exhibitions of work by the great impressionists and expressionists, e.g. Claude Monet was the focus of a major exhibition in 1994.

This article is about the museum in Humlebæk, Denmark. For the museum in New Orleans, Louisiana, see Louisiana State Museum.
Louisiana Museum of Modern Art
Established1958
LocationHumlebæk, Denmark
TypeArt museum
Visitors724,580 (2015)[1]
DirectorPoul Erik Tøjner
Public transit accessHumlebæk/Louisiana station
Websitewww.louisiana.dk

The museum is included in the Patricia Schultz book 1,000 Places to See Before You Die and ranks 85th on a list of the most visited art museums in the world (2011).

Location

The museum is located by the Øresund coast in the North Zeeland region, some 30 km (19 mi) north of central Copenhagen and 10 km (6 mi) south of Elsinore. From the regional train station in Humlebæk, it takes 10-15 minutes to walk to the museum.

History

The name of the museum derives from the first owner of the property, Alexander Brun, who named the villa after his three wives, all called Louise.[3] The museum was created in 1958 by Knud W. Jensen, the owner at the time. He contacted architects Vilhelm Wohlert and Jørgen Bo who spent a few months walking around the property before deciding how a new construction would best fit into the landscape. This study resulted in the first version of the museum consisting of three buildings connected by glass corridors. Since then it has been extended several times until it reached its present circular shape in 1991.[4]

In late November 2012, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art launched Louisiana Channel, a web-TV channel contributing to the development of the museum as a cultural platform.

In 2013, the museum's music department launched Louisiana Music, a webpage dedicated to musical videos produced by the museum in collaboration with world-famous musicians.

View of the sea from the museum lawn.

Collections

Modern art

The museum has a wide range of modern art paintings, sculptures and videos dating from World War II to the present day, including works by artists such as Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Anselm Kiefer, Alberto Giacometti, Pablo Picasso, Yves Klein, Robert Rauschenberg, David Hockney and Asger Jorn. The videos are often housed in room settings where the viewer is made to feel part of the scene being portrayed. Perched above the sea, there is a sculpture garden between the museum's two wings with works by artists including Henry Moore, Alexander Calder, and Jean Arp.

Wessel-Bagge collection

Besides the collection of modern art, Louisiana also displays a collection of Pre-Columbian art. Consisting of more than 400 objects, the collection was a donation from the Wessel-Bagge Foundation in 2001. It is the personal collection left by Niels-Wessel Bagge, a California-based Danish dancer, choreographer, and art collector, who died in 1990.

Exhibitions

The Louisiana Museum mounts temporary exhibitions, including installations such as Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson's site-specific work "Riverbed", which was made specifically for the museum and shown from August 2014 to January 2015.[5] The work was in three sections with a theme that related art, architecture and nature, in which a rocky riverbed was created to take up the museum's entire south wing.[5]

The concert hall

Concert hall

The Concert Hall was built in 1976 in connection with the West Wing which had been built in 1966 and 1971. Its acoustics make it especially suitable for chamber music, but it is also used for other musical genres as well as a wide array of others events and activities such as debates, lectures and symposiums. The chairs are designed by Poul Kjærholm and the rear wall is decorated with paintings created for the site by Sam Francis.[6]

In 2007 began a project to produce concerts filming and musical clips directed by Stéphan Aubé. All the movies are available for free on the Louisiana Music website.

Sculpture garden, Louisiana Art Museum.

Sculpture garden

The grounds around the museum contain a landscaped sculpture garden. It consists of a plateau and ground that slopes towards the Øresund and is dominated by huge, ancient specimen trees and sweeping vistas of the sea.

It contains works by such artists as Jean Arp, Max Ernst, Max Bill, Alexander Calder, Henri Laurens, Louise Bourgeois, Joan Miró and Henry Moore. The sculptures are either placed so that they can be viewed from within, in special sculpture yards or independently around the gardens, forming a synthesis with the lawns, the trees and the sea.[2] There are also examples of site-specific art by such artists as Enzo Cucchi, Dani Karavan and George Trakas.[7]

A room in louisiana with sculpture works from Alberto Giacometti

Louisiana Literature

Louisiana Literature festival is an annual festival that takes place at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. Launched in 2010, the festival each year features about forty writers from across the world. They perform on stages around the museum and in the sculpture park, and attract more than 15,000 people each year.

Directors

1958 —1993:[8] Knud W. Jensen
1995 —: Lars Nittve
1998 —: Steingrim Laursen
2000 —: Poul Erik Tøjner

Partners and Sponsors

Partners

Republic of Fritz Hansen and Nørgaard på Strøget are the Louisiana's main corporate partners. [9]

Sponsors

UBS sponsors programs and exhibitions at Louisiana. Realdania has supported Louisiana'a architectural exhibitions since 2006. The new Carlsberg foundation has supported Louisiana's acquisition programme generously throughout most of the museum's history. [9]

References
  1. "Kunstmuseet Louisiana i vanvittig publikumsrekord" (in Danish). sn.dk. 5 January 2016. Retrieved 12 January 2016.
  2. "Louisiana". AOK. Retrieved 2009-06-03.
  3. "The Louisiana History". Louisiana. Retrieved 2020-02-02.
  4. "Louisiana", Journal (in Danish), Post Danmark Frimærker (3/08), pp. 2–5, May 2008
  5. "Riverbed". Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. 2014. Retrieved 12 November 2019.
  6. "Arkitekturen" (in Danish). AOK. Archived from the original on 2013-08-20. Retrieved 2011-10-18.
  7. "Louisiana". Louisiana. Archived from the original on 2009-01-04. Retrieved 2009-06-03.
  8. "Knud W. Jensen". Gyldendal Den Store Danske (in Danish). Retrieved 5 August 2015.
  9. "Louisiana partners and sponsors". Louisiana. Retrieved 2019-11-12.

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