A Winter rich of exhibitions in Copenhagen

Matisse: The Red Studio at SMK - the National Gallery of Denmark
Special Exhibitions /until 26th of February 2023

The National Gallery of Denmark (SMK) presents a new exhibition featuring works by French master painter Henri Matisse. Organized in collaboration with The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the exhibition reunites an iconic masterpiece, The Red Studio, with all the works of art depicted in the painting.

The picture depicts the artist’s studio in the Parisian suburb of Issy-les-Moulineaux filled with his own paintings, sculptures, furniture, and decorative objects. In a radical move, the artist has saturated the painting’s surface with a monochrome red covering the walls, floors, and furniture. Three of the paintings shown in the picture belong to SMK, and with this exhibition, all the works depicted are now reunited for the first time in over 100 years.

The exhibition is curated around The Red Studio making it possible to explore all the artwork in the painting in the very room hosting the exhibition. The exhibition is a highlight at the MoMA collection in New York offering a unique opportunity to experience The Red Studio in Denmark and gain rare insight into Matisse’s choice of subject matter and artistic working methods.

Leonora Carrington - ARKEN Museum of Modern Art
Special exhibitions /Until 15th of January 2023

ARKEN Museum of Modern Art in Copenhagen opens the first major exhibition in Scandinavia of one of Surrealism's key figures, Leonora Carrington. Leonora Carrington rebelled against power hierarchies and conventions with a magical universe filled with humor, witchcraft, and spirit, yet she remained an overlooked figure in art history.

Carrington’s art takes you into enchanted worlds of magical creatures undergoing transformations – powerful female figures turning into horses, and witches and old women as expressions of zest for life and resistance. Alchemy and astrology captured Carrington's heart and she even created her own tarot cards. For seven decades, she expressed herself in a range of media – painting, sculpture, drawing and tapestries, and as an author.

With the exhibition at ARKEN, this is the first time a Scandinavian audience will be able to experience a large retrospective exhibition that unfolds Carrington’s life’s work. Here, visitors will find key works from England, the US, and Mexico, important works from private collections that have never been exhibited before, as well as photographs and letters.

Paul Gauguin and the Danish Connection - Glyptoteket
Special Exhibitions /until 8th of January 2023

Glyptoteket presents the Small Salon displays a small thematic exhibition entitled Paul Gauguin and the Danish Connection that casts the spotlight on the French artist Paul Gauguin’s residence in Copenhagen (November 1884 – May 1885). The focal point of the exhibition is two newly acquired works by Gauguin: Snow in Copenhagen (1884), one of the first landscapes he painted in Copenhagen, and Sleeping Woman. Portrait of Madame Mette Sophie Gauguin (end of the 1870s), a sensitive portrait of the artist’s wife, Mette Gauguin. 

The thematic exhibition presents 13 works by Gauguin from the museum’s collection and tells the story of the artist’s wife, Mette Gauguin – a businesswoman with a knack for selling his work and organizing his exhibitions.

The Small Salon
In the future, The Small Salon will provide the setting for small, temporary exhibitions of French art. In this exhibition space, visitors can gain insight into the museum’s work on French art – one of the Glyptotek’s main fields of interest.

Alex Da Corte - Louisiana Museum of Modern Art
Special exhibition /until 1st of January 2023

Louisiana Museum of Modern Art presents an overwhelming, visual experience by international art-star Alex Da Corte. This exhibition is the largest to date in Europe and the artist conquers spaces with color in the intersection between design and visual culture. A mix of both early and completely new works in a totally overpowering scenography, conceived by the artist, with specially designed floors, brightly colored walls, neon lights, and characteristic scents – all in all like stepping into a parallel reality.

Alex Da Corte (b. 1980) conquers spaces with color in the intersection between design and visual culture. Louisiana’s exhibition is the first in-depth presentation of the Venezuelan-American artist’s works in Europe. A mix of both early and completely new works in a totally overpowering scenography, conceived by the artist, with specially designed floors, brightly colored walls, neon lights, and characteristic scents – all in all like stepping into a parallel reality.

Cao Fei and Spring Exhibition - Kunsthal Charlottenborg
Special exhibitions /Cao Fei until 15th of January / Spring Exhibition until 5th of March 2023

Kunsthal Charlottenborg presents the film installation Asia One by Chinese artist Cao Fei. The artist is known for her ambitious multimedia installations which reflect on the extensive changes and developments taking place in Chinese society today, shaping her generation. In Asia One, she portrays a China divided between past and present, between its history and a yearning for all things new. Furthermore, Cao Fei mixes social commentary, popular aesthetics, references to surrealism, and documentary elements in a distinctive artistic idiom that has resonated around the world in recent years.

The exhibition Asia One ends on the 19th of February.

The Charlottenborg Spring Exhibition is among the most important, open and critically curated exhibitions in Europe, as it has been an annual recurring show at Kunsthal Charlottenborg ever since 1857 and is one of the most requested exhibitions to be a part of. The exhibition presents a selection of works by artists from Denmark and further afield across the genres of visual art, architecture, crafts and design and has, throughout the years, been a springboard for many renowned artists.

The Spring Exhibition ends on the 5th of March.

Sean Scully Material World - Thorvaldsens Museum
Special exhibition /until 5th of March

Thorvaldsens Museum hosts a special exhibition of unparalleled dimensions by world-renowned artist Sean Scully. Scully has created large-scale, site-specific sculptures specifically for the museum in his first-ever Danish solo show. The entire museum is utilized in the exhibition, where the artist has chosen the materials for his new works carefully and with reference to Bertel Thorvaldsen’s life and art as well as the history of Denmark.

The exhibition presents a meeting across time and space between two artistic superstars, Sean Scully and Bertel Thorvaldsen. Despite the different life worlds and time periods between the artists, both strive to express primary human emotions, combining physical and metaphysical dimensions into a form of imagery that is universal.
 
New Public Sculpture for Copenhagen

The city space of Copenhagen has been granted a new public sculpture during the exhibition period. Scully’s sculpture group ’Oak Stacks’ has been created specifically for Bertel Thorvaldsen’s Square in front of the museum. The artwork consists of three tall sculptures made from historic local Danish timber. The sculpture can be experienced during the first months of 2023 – the year in which Copenhagen has officially been designated as the World Capital of Architecture.