Anne Gregersen Livres

What do the sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770–1844), the Symbolist Jens Ferdinand Willumsen (1863–1958), and the artist Asger Jorn (1914–1973) have in common besides the international outlook that made them leave their Danish motherland? They lived in different eras, yet built up vast artist collections that echo as well as pollinate their own artistic practice in similar ways. Thorvaldsen was known for his expertise in antique art, Willumsen as an El Greco expert, and Jorn—a co-founder of COBRA and the Situationist International—strove to make modern art accessible to a broad audience. All three of these artists’ art collections, now in public museums, each carry an individual style that does not espouse collecting art chronologically, but rather intuitively. This uniquely designed catalogue presents the artists’ different approaches to collecting, which shook up the museum landscapes of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Exhibition: J. F. Willumsen Museum, Frederikssund 10.6.–30.12.2018

At the birth of modernism in the late 19th century, artists across Europe rediscovered the almost three centuries old artwork of the Greek painter known as El Greco (1541–1614). In the Nordic countries as well, his characteristic rapturous and expressive style was perceived as speaking directly to the rule-breaking forms of expression with which a new generation of artists were experimenting. His hailing as a cult figure was based as much on the story of his life, though, including the 300 years of rejection and obscurity that made him an outsider idol for young artists. This catalogue traces the inspiration that leading Nordic artists such as Edvard Munch, Helene Schjerfbeck, Nils Dardel, Harald Giersing, and Jens Ferdinand Willumsen took from the works of El Greco, and for the first time specifically explores his Nordic reception in the decades between 1885–1945, adding a hitherto undiscovered piece to the mosaic of El Greco’s multifaceted and multinational rediscovery.