SEATTLE, WA.- The National Nordic Museum will display a rotating selection of the works of Danish-American artist Dines Carlsen. The exhibition opens July 22 and features numerous drawings on view from the National Nordic Museum’s permanent collection.

In June 2020, the Museum received 943 Dines Carlsen drawings and one oil painting from the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields.

“This significant transfer marked the Museum’s largest acquisition to date but was made at a time that we were closed to the public. We are delighted to share these works with our community,” said Executive Director/CEO Eric Nelson.

The Museum’s collection includes the works of Dines Carlsen (1901–1966), a celebrated still life painter who was a member of the National Academy of Design, as well as portraits of his father Danish painter (Søren) Emil Carlsen (1848–1932), who emigrated to the United States from Denmark. Outside of the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art in Washington D.C., the National Nordic Museum is the main repository of materials related to the Carlsen family. Dines Carlsen’s paintings are held in the collections of the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields, the National Academy of Design in New York City, the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC.

“This corpus of drawings strengthens the National Nordic Museum’s holdings of art by Nordic-American artists. We were excited to welcome this sizeable gift into our collection,” said Leslie Anne Anderson, Director of Collections, Exhibitions, and Programs. Anderson began her curatorial career at the IMA and has researched the work of Carlsen extensively. She presented her findings at the annual meeting of the Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study.

In the dynamic exhibition curated by Museum staff, visitors will enjoy a rotating selection from the collection. Recent discoveries will be shared with visitors allowing them to discover more about Dines Carlsen.

Additional programming will include a virtual lecture on July 29 by Anderson that will trace the careers of Danish-American artist Emil Carlsen and his son, Dines Carlsen (1901–1966).