Bøger udgivet af SMK Forlag

Tre-i-en-udstilling med fokus på flugt, grænsekrydsning og asylpolitik set gennem værker af kunstnere og netværker, hvoraf de fleste har migrant- eller flygtningebaggrund. Udstillingerne er kurateret af CAMP / Center for Migrationspolitisk Kunst, der er Skandinaviens eneste udstillingssted for migrationsfokuseret kunst.Udstillingen Migrationspolitik: Tre CAMP-udstillinger på SMK præsenterer værker, der forholder sig til strukturelle spørgsmål omkring flugt og migration og som fremstiller personlige erfaringer og oplevelser af at være fordrevet og migrere.Værkerne er skabt af 14 kunstnere, kunstnergrupper og sociale netværk, der kommer fra mange forskellige steder i verden og som for de flestes vedkommende har personlige erfaringer med fordrivelse, asyl og migration.

Værkerne i Joachim Koesters udstilling på SMK, Patterns, Shimmers, Scenes, kan alle forstås som rum-tid-rejser i generationer af bevidstheder, sådan som de har aflejret sig i vores geografiske landskaber og i ting, vi omgiver os med. De kan forstås som det, Joachim Koester med egne ord har kaldt et “indeks over usynlige ting.” Man kan betragte udstillingens værker, som det de er: gådefulde billeder af forladte steder med historier, der afslører utrolige fortider, men de kan også bruges til noget. Hvert enkelt værk kan ses som en manual eller teknik til, hvordan man selv kan udvide bevidstheden om de dybere aflejringer i ens sind og ens omgivelser og måske begynde at forstå de historiske kræfter, der afgør, hvilke begivenheder der huskes, og hvilke der lægges i graven. Bogens forord er skrevet af SMK’s direktør Mikkel Bogh og forlagsredaktør Cecilie Høgsbro Østergaard og efterfølges af museumsinspektør og seniorforsker Vibeke Vibolt Knudsens guide til Koesters fotografiske oeuvre. Publikationen indeholder desuden otte tekster skrevet af Koester selv til udvalgte værker i udstillingen. The works in Joachim Koester’s exhibition at SMK, Patterns, Shimmers, Scenes, can all be understood as space-time journeys through generations of consciousness, as they have settled in our landscapes and the things with which we surround ourselves. They can be understood as what Koester has in his own words called an “index of invisible things.” One can view the works in the exhibition for what they are: enigmatic images of deserted places, with histories that reveal incredible pasts; but they can also have a use. Every single work can be seen as a manual or a technique for expanding one’s own consciousness about the deeper deposits in one’s mind and one’s surroundings, and perhaps for beginning to understand the historical forces which determine which events are remembered, and which are laid to rest. The foreword of the book is written by the director of the SMK, Mikkel Bogh, and editor in chief, Cecilie Høgsbro Østergaard, and is followed by a guide to Joachim Koester’s photographic work written by curator and senior researcher Vibeke Vibolt Knudsen. The book also contains eight texts written by Koester himself for some selected works from the exhibition.

♥♥♥♥♥– Politiken This catalogue is the first publication of all the Venetian drawings in the Royal Collection of Graphic Art at The National Gallery of Denmark (Statens Museum for Kunst). Few of these drawings have ever been published, and only a handful has been shown to the public within living memory. Research in connection with this catalogue has revealed that not only is the number if drawings from this geographic area surprisingly high, but the quality of the drawings is stupendous, counting some of the most beautiful sheets in the collection. Furthermore, the comprehensiveness of this part of the collection has proved extraordinary with very even coverage of the development of draughtsmanship in Venice and the Venetian mainland from the 1480s, when sketching on paper became common, through the lesser-known 17th century to the fall of the Venetian republic in 1797. This catalogue presents more than 200 fine drawings by Vittore Carpaccio, Moretto da Brescia, Domenico Campagnola, Jacopo Bassano, Paolo Farinati and Paolo Veronese, large groups of studies by Palma Giovane and Antonio Vassilacchi called Aliense, as well as sheets by 18th-century draughtsmen such as Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini, Gaspare Diziani, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo and his son Domenico, Francesco Fontebasso, Francesco Guardi and Giovanni Battista Piranesi.Chris Fischer is senior researcher and head of the Centre for Advanced Studies in Master Drawings at The National Gallery of Denmark. Fischer is an internationally acclaimed scholar within the field of master drawings and has arranged exhibitions at institutions such as the Louvre in Paris and the Uffizi in Florence. He is the world’s foremost researcher on the work of the Italian Renaissance artist Fra Bartolommeo, who ranks alongside Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and Michelangelo as one of the four pre-eminent artists of the High Renaissance. Dette katalog er den første samlede udgivelse af alle de venetianske tegninger, der findes i Den Kongelige Kobberstiksamling på Statens Museum for Kunst. Kun få af tegningerne i kataloget er tidligere blevet offentliggjort, og kun en håndfuld har været vist for offentligheden. Forskning i forbindelse med tilblivelsen af kataloget har vist, at ikke alene er antallet af tegninger fra dette geografiske område overraskende høj, men kvaliteten af tegningerne er tilmed imponerende, og nogle af de smukkeste tegninger i samlingen stammer herfra. Denne del af samlingen er enestående og dækker bredt udviklingen af tegnekunst omkring Venedig fra 1480'erne, hvor tegning på papir blev almindeligt, gennem det mindre kendte 17. århundrede til opløsningen af den venetianske republik i 1797. Dette katalog indeholder over 200 tegninger af Vittore Carpaccio, Moretto da Brescia, Domenico Campagnola, Jacopo Bassano, Paolo Farinati og Paolo Veronese, større samlinger af studier af Palma Giovane og Antonio Vassilacchi kaldet Aliense, såvel som tegninger af 1700-tals kunstnere såsom Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini, Gaspare Diziani, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo og hans søn Domenico, Francesco Fontebasso, Francesco Guardi og Giovanni Battista Piranesi. Chris Fischer er seniorforsker og leder af Forskningscenter for Tegnekunst på Statens Museum for Kunst. Fischer er en internationalt anerkendt forsker i tegnekunst og har bl.a. lavet udstillinger på Louvre i Paris og Uffizierne i Firenze. Han er verdens førende forsker i den italienske renæssancekunstner Fra Bartolommeo, der sammen med Leonardo da Vinci, Rafael og Michelangelo er højrenæssancens fire mest betydningsfulde kunstnere.

How is a work of art made? How does an artist progress from the initial idea to the finished masterpiece? That is the question addressed by this winter’s major exhibition at SMK. Rembrandt, Edgar Degas, Nicolai Abildgaard, Bertel Thorvaldsen, Christen Købke, P.S. Krøyer and many more. You can examine the works and methods of some of the greatest figures of art history in this winter’s major special exhibition at SMK. The book delves into the methods used by various artists, giving you rare insight into the artistic process right from the initial ideas to the fully finished work. A stellar selection of major masterpieces accompanied by rarely-seen sketches and studies allows you to trace the artists’ works and methods, exploring why and how these works ended up looking as they do. More than 150 drawings, prints and paintings from the 15th to the 20th century enable you to scrutinise the links between sketches and finished artworks, exploring how artistic creativity has unfolded itself in different ways through the ages. The book is based on the lifelong study of Old Master drawings conducted by Chris Fischer, senior researcher and head of SMK’s Centre for Advanced Studies in Master Drawings. Fischer is an internationally acclaimed scholar within the field of master drawings and has arranged exhibitions at institutions such as the Louvre in Paris and the Uffizi in Florence. He is the world’s foremost researcher on the work of the Italian Renaissance artist Fra Bartolommeo, who ranks alongside Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and Michelangelo as one of the four pre-eminent artists of the High Renaissance.

The exhibition and book Bjørn Nørgaard. Re-Modelling the World presents one of the most ground-breaking and agenda-setting figures within Nordic contemporary art since the mid-1960s. When Bjørn Nørgaard began his career as a very young man, he operated on the outskirts of the established art scene. Right from the outset, he adopted a critical view of the main institutions of art – particularly the art academy, art museum, and art criticism – and it is quite telling that he got his education within the working collective Eks-Skolen (The Experimental Art School) rather than at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Art, which at the time was regarded as the main route leading to widespread recognition as an artist. The experimental art school formed a setting for individual and collective explorations of the links between art, politics, economics, and everyday lived life. This involved the use of new materials, new forms of working, and new forms of presentation, some of which drew on the lessons learnt by historical avant-garde art founded in the early twentieth century, but at the same time, the work was strongly influenced by the young artists’ encounters with the most recent art from Germany and the USA where happenings, installation art, and action art had begun to gain prominence. The book and exhibition Bjørn Nørgaard. Re-Modelling the World showcases a prominent artist’s road from the 1960s with their radical, at times Utopian striving for open-ended works up towards the popular, narrative, and visually seductive artistic production that has characterised Bjørn Nørgaard in recent decades. This road has led to monumental works in the public space, but these large-scale works have emerged side by side with material actions and performances, which the artist has maintained as part of his practice throughout his career. In the mid-1960s, no-one would ever have guessed that an experimental artistic practise that initially took on the most humble and fragile forms – using plaster, wire, cardboard, and textiles as favourite materials – would ever progress the way it did, even reaching far into the institutions to which the artist offered such resistance as a young man. Nevertheless, a red thread runs through his entire production, and this is documented in this book.

Intimitet kender alle til – følelsen af at være tæt forbundet med mennesker, rum og ting. Men det intime liv er ikke givet en gang for alle; det har sin egen kulturhistorie, som billedkunsten har været med til at præge. Fra starten af 1700-tallet og de følgende 200 år trak kunstnere det begivenhedsløse liv frem i værkernes forgrund. De store begivenheder måtte i stigende grad vige pladsen for billedet af privatpersonen i fortrolige omgivelser. Og for det følsomme individ foran værket, der med lys, rum og teksturer kan kalde på betragterens intime blik. I forbindelse med udstillingen Tæt på – Intimiteter i kunsten 1730-1930 har SMK’s direktør, Mikkel Bogh, skrevet en bog, han længe har haft i tankerne. Tæt på – Intimiteter i kunsten 1730-1930 udfolder historien om, hvordan kunsten blev moderne, da den begyndte at gå tæt på den private krop og på tingene i de nære omgivelser.

Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg (1783-1853) stands among the most important artists of Danish art history. While working in Rome around 1815, he created the basis for an entire epoch in Danish art: the so-called Golden Age. Eckersberg’s art combines dual traits: great precision in the depiction of every detail as well as a desire to show his subjects to their best advantage. He disregarded the accidental and the ugly. And he would often adjust and “improve” his subjects. Eckersberg paved the way for modern painting. Without the understated transition away from classical history painting to studies of nature’s essential forms effected by him and other artists such as J.A.D. Ingres, later artists like Paul Cézanne or Edvard Weie would not have had the same starting point for their work with the picture plane, nor for their poetic liberation of colour itself. In his own day, Eckersberg struck a highly successful balance between fundamental respect for the actual visual appearance of the physical world and a keen sense for the formal architecture of paintings. Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg offers insight into the artist’s life and career while also considering his work within the framework of the international art scene of his day. Instead of providing a conventionally slavish chronological account of his life, the book sheds new light on his art by exploring five central themes: views of nature, portraying people, the human body, storytelling and image construction. Written by a range of leading experts on Eckersberg’s art, this book is published to coincide with the SMK exhibition Eckersberg - A Beautiful Lie.

The Royal Collection of Graphic Art at the SMK recently acquired a drawing by Auguste Rodin, thereby making yet another addition to its small collection of drawings by the French sculptor. Executed in watercolour and pencil, the drawing shows a woman’s torso and a vase – two bodies united in a single figure: a woman-vase. The figure is up to the waist in water, causing the space around it to appear liquid, formless, without boundaries. It has no clear-cut standpoint, no absolutely defined contours or identity: it is, quite literally, besides itself. Ecstatic. Ecstasies is published in connection with the exhibition Fleeting Moments at SMK and offers an introduction to important aspects of Rodin’s drawings. It addresses Rodin as a draughtsman in and of his time, exploring both the elements that shaped him and those that he went on to shape. But, beyond the individual drawings and the period in which they were made, both book and exhibition also aim to open our eyes to what drawing is and can be. Rodin’s drawings can help us understand many by artists that preceded him and even more of those that followed.

In most of the art historical writing in the 20th century, it has been considered good practice to keep art separate from popular culture. This changed in the 1960s when the boundaries between art and popular or mass culture shifted radically. Andy Warhol's celebration of celebrity culture and his art factory is perhaps the most obvious example. Genealogically, Paris in La Belle Époque is an important link in this history, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec occupies a very special status due to his completely unveiled exchange with the entertainment industry from the late 1880s. The human comedy – as Balzac dubbed the social game – in Lautrec's interpretations of the city's theater was infiltrated by popular cultural dynamics. They themselves contributed to creating the culture that was portrayed. Therefore, Lautrec is just as relevant today as he was in the early modern world when his art was created. This is especially true in his pioneering and visually radical graphic works and posters, which were produced in a period of just ten years from 1891 until his death in 1901, during which he managed to produce over 360 different lithographic prints.Today, the Royal Print Collection holds one of the most complete collections of Lautrec's graphic work.In contrast to earlier chronologically structured exhibitions, Toulouse-Lautrec. The Human Comedy views Lautrec's work from a comprehensive, thematic perspective, showing a broad selection of Lautrec's graphic work with a focus on the city's body and its staging of gender and identity.

We all know the sense of intimacy – of being closely attuned to people, spaces and objects. But the concept of intimacy is not a fixed, given thing; it has its own cultural history that art has helped shape and change. In a process that began in the early eighteenth century and lasted two hundred years, artists increasingly pulled quite uneventful lives into the foreground of their art. Grand and spectacular events gave way to images of ordinary people in familiar settings. And the artists increasingly spoke directly to sensitive observers, using light, spaces and textures that invite intimate observation. With Closer – Intimacies in Art 1730-1930 the director of the SMK, Mikkel Bogh, relates the story of how art became modern, homing in on the private, personal body and the objects of everyday life.

Asgers Jorns kunst og tænkning er gennem de seneste årtier blevet mødt med en voksende opmærksomhed i både Danmark og udlandet, og hans centrale rolle i europæisk efterkrigstidskunst er for alvor ved at blive slået fast. 100-året for Jorns fødsel, den 3. marts 2014, er anledningen til, at Statens Museum for Kunst sammen med Museum Jorn i Silkeborg markerer kunstneren med to store udstillinger samt to ledsagende bøger. For begge museer er intentionen langt mere end blot en fejring af Jorn som hovedskikkelse i dansk kunst og kultur. Målet er at kaste et nuanceret og fagligt opdateret blik på hans kunst og skabe et solidt grundlag for at revurdere hans betydning som en markant figur i det 20. århundredes kunsthistorie. I dette udstillings- og bogprojekt præsenteres mangfoldigheden i Jorns virke som et markant træk. Målet er at tegne et billede af Jorns kunst i al dens kompleksitet ved specifikt at sætte fokus på hans multifacetterede tilgang, der kombinerer humoristiske og ekspressive malerier med filosofiske og politiske tekster, materielle eksperimenter med avantgardestrategier, kunstnerisk indsigt med socialt udsyn. Asger Jorn – Rastløs Rebel stiller skarpt på Asger Jorns liv og arbejde gennem artikler skrevet af en række danske og internationale Jorn-eksperter.

I det meste af kunsthistorieskrivningen i det 20. århundrede har det været god tone at holde kunsten adskilt fra populærkulturen. Det ændrede sig i 1960’erne, hvor grænserne mellem kunsten og populær- eller massekulturen forskød sig radikalt. Andy Warhols dyrkelse af stjernekulturen og hans kunstfabrik er nok det mest indlysende eksempel. Genealogisk er Paris i La Belle Époque et vigtigt led i denne historie, og Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec indtager en helt særlig status på grund af hans fuldstændigt utilslørede udveksling med underholdningsindustrien fra slutningen af 1880’erne. Den menneskelige komedie – som Balzac døbte det sociale spil – blev i Lautrecs fortolkninger af storbyens teater infiltreret af de populærkulturelle dynamikker. De bidrog selv til at skabe den kultur, der blev portrætteret. Lautrec er derfor lige så aktuel i dag som i den tidlige moderne verden, hvor hans kunst blev til. Det gælder ikke mindst i hans banebrydende og visuelt radikale grafiske værker og plakater, der blev til i en periode på blot ti år fra 1891 til hans død i 1901, hvor han nåede at producere over 360 forskellige litografiske tryk. Den Kongelige Kobberstiksamling rummer i dag en af de mest fuldstændige samlinger af Lautrecs grafiske værk. I modsætning til tidligere tiders kronologisk anlagte udstillinger anskuer Toulouse-Lautrec. Den menneskelige komedie Lautrecs værk ud fra en overordnet, tematiserende vinkel, der viser et bredt udsnit af Lautrecs grafiske værk med fokus på storbyens krop og dens iscenesættelse af køn og identitet.

Nicolai Abildgaard can be said to be the overlooked grandfather of Danish painting. Abildgaard was active as an artist at a time of turmoil where religion, absolute monarchy, and class society was engaged in a struggle with modern views on society and humanity, and he himself sided with the new notions about human rights, criticizing absolute monarchy and the practice of religion. The introductory article in this book, Body and Tradition, which describes the long lines in Abildgaard’s development as an artist, is divided up into five main sections which more or less follow the chronology of the artist’s work: Between Copenhagen and Rome (1767-1778), The Body of Power (1778-1794), The Ghost of Tradition (c. 1778-1809), The political artist (1785- c. 1800) and The turn towards the private (c. 1790-1809). In the articles that follow, five writers deal with parts or aspects of Abildgaard’s oeuvre; the British art historian Martin Myrone describes the international milieu in Rome in which Abildgaard found himself in the 1770s; the art historian Charlotte Christensen investigates Abildgaard’s use of references to art history and sheds new light on the presence of the tradition in Abildgaard’s works; Kasper Monrad interprets Abildgaard’s Nightmare against the background of the biographical context in which it arose; Henrik Ole Holm makes a topicalizing interpretation of The Wounded Philoctetes, and finally Louise Fussing analyses a selection of Abildgaard’s furniture designs and puts them into perspective.

Katalogets hovedartikel af Birgitte Anderberg beskriver den danske eksperimentelle kunstscene i perioden 1965-75 med særlig vægt på 1970’ernes kvindelige kunstnere og periodens tidlige avantgarde kunst. Anderbergs artikel suppleres af en lang række tekster fra perioden af kunstnerne selv – om kunsten og det der skete i tiden.

Denne antologi udforsker de forandringer og muligheder, som digitaliseringen og digitale medier medfører – for museer og andre kulturinstitutioner, og ikke mindst for brugerne. Antologien udspringer af den internationale Sharing is Caring-konference, der er blevet afholdt siden 2011, og de forskelligartede bidrag afspejler seminarets vekslende formater – fra substantielle keynotes til ultrakorte ignite talks. Antologien spænder vidt i temaer og indfaldsvinkler. Der er bidrag fra museumsfolk, universitetsforskere, offentlige forvaltere, en advokat og en skolelærer. Den røde tråd er at undersøge de nye muligheder for at åbne op og dele viden og ressourcer, som digitaliseringen medfører.

Stick the Fork in Your Eye, We Shall Be Glad to Eat Ourselves is the title of a painting by Wilhelm Freddie (1909-1995). Join the feast! This is how we are confronted with Freddie’s art. It was his ambition to use artistic means to free inner forces in man. Like a fork in the eye, his art was to awaken its viewers from the unconscious slumber induced by bourgeois society. Wilhelm Freddie is without exaggeration one of the most mythologized figures in the history of Danish art. He made his entry on the art scene in 1929 and soon became a prominent representative of the surrealist movement in Denmark – indeed in all of Scandinavia. Like his fellow artists Vilhelm Bjerke-Petersen, Richard Mortensen and Ejler Bille, he embraced surrealism from the moment he encountered it in the early 1930s and used it as a take-off point for articulating his own artistic project. To many, Freddie’s name represents the quintessence of provocation and scandal. This friendly, forthcoming and always impeccably-dressed man, who even during hard times kept wearing starched white shirts, agitated the public mind with his art, and as early as the 1930s his work occasioned police reports. Although Freddie is known primarily as a painter and sculptor, his creative work spans several other media and materials such as photography, ballet, window decoration, linguistic construction, and design. The book opens with an introductory essay outlining Wilhelm Freddie’s oeuvre, followed by eight shorter articles by Danish and foreign experts, each throwing light on particular aspects. The first three of these deal with central themes such as Freddie’s concern with sexuality and his social criticism, while the remaining five focus on lesser-known media employed in Freddie’s art. Acting together as a prism, they project a more complete picture of Freddie’s oeuvre.

Gennem hele sin lange karriere udvidede Henri Matisse (1869-1954) konstant grænserne for sin kunst. Ved at gentage sine motiver i billedpar, -trioer og -serier førte han en vedvarende dialog med sine egne tidligere værker, for, som han udtrykte det, at “trænge længere og dybere ind i det sande maleri”. Med denne friske tilgang til en gennemudforsket kunstner undersøger en række prominente forskere fra Europa og USA mere end 60 værker i skarpt formulerede kapitler, der alle fokuserer på dette særlige aspekt af Matisses arbejdsmetode. Fra tidlige billedpar såsom Ung sømand I og II (1906) og Le Luxe I og II (1907-08) og frem til en serie sene atelierbilleder fra Vence (1946-48), ser vi Matisse genoptage forskellige temaer med det formål at finde innovative og ofte radikale løsninger på spørgsmål som, hvordan man gengiver lyset, håndterer malingen, vælger sine farver og manipulerer sit perspektiv. Nye tekniske studier af de tidlige billedpar samt fotografier, der dokumenterer udviklingen af hans senere malerier, hjælper til at afdække værkernes komplekse tilblivelsesproces. Uddrag fra talrige breve og interview afslører Matisse som en kunstner, der hyppigt satte spørgsmålstegn ved sig selv og sine metoder, og som en mand med et stærkt intellekt, der så hvert nyt maleri som en opdagelsesrejse. Matisse – fordobling og variation er en betydningsfuld tilføjelse til den kunsthistoriske litteratur og en øjenåbnende studie af en hovedfigur i 1900-tallets modernisme.