Landscape

People and landscapes are inextricably linked. We find peace and quiet in landscape, we cultivate it, we manipulate it, and we respect its mighty powers. During a time of crisis like now, when the world is still plagued by the corona pandemic, we return to the landscape in quest of unspoilt nature. 

The exhibition asks such questions as: What exactly is a landscape? Is there such a thing as an unspoilt landscape? Why the urge to portray landscape in art? And what significance does landscape have for people? 

Art can help us to see landscape with fresh eyes, so we hope visitors leave the exhibition changed and with a different view of nature and the world.

A broad spectrum

The exhibition will provide visitors with a marvellous journey through landscapes featured in art ranging from the 19th century to the present day. It presents a comprehensive selection of works from many different periods and with many different forms of expression: ranging from empathetic to temperamental landscapes, and from conceptual to quite simply beautiful landscapes. You will have an opportunity to discover: H.A. Brendekilde’ beautiful spring idyll; the pared-back, monumental portrayals of nature by Niels Lergaard and the ‘Dark Painters’; Else Alfelt’s abstract landscapes; John Cage’s sound art; Christo’s land art; and Kaarina Kaikkonen’s spellbindingly beautiful contemporary work made from recycled clothes. The exhibition also presents a brand new acquisition. Roman Ondak’s Event Horizon (2016), is being shown in Denmark for the very first time. The work places nature, time and the history of humankind in a larger context and features a single oak tree cut up into 100 pieces. Each piece represents a single year and an historic event from that year.  

In a huge variety of materials and artistic media, the selected works investigate both the positive and negative aspects of people’s relationship with the landscape and how that relationship, as expressed in art, has changed over the years. The landscapes of art are not merely a reflection of their motifs, but also the result of a complex process of interpretation and selection, shaped by the ideas and worldview of the era in which they were created, thereby revealing a lot about that era. 

In other words, an artistic depiction of landscape is also a depiction of ourselves, our perception of a landscape and the culture of which it is part.