COPENHAGEN.- Two full-scale retrospective exhibitions of Wilhelm Freddie and Nicolai Abildgaard. Read also about the autumn’s grand exhibitions on the occasion of the UN Copenhagen Climate Change Conference and the new exhibition initiatives of the Collection of Prints and Drawings.

WILHELM FREDDIE / STICK THE FORK IN YOUR EYE!
28 FEBRUARY – 1 JUNE 2009
Wilhelm Freddie (1909-1995) is a completely unique figure in Danish art, who was inspired in his stubborn opposition to the etiquette of the age by the new trends of the international art scene and became one of the major surrealists in Scandinavia and the rest of Europe. This comprehensive exhibition marks the centenary of Freddie’s birth and includes more than 130 works, plus reproductions of many now lost works, covering all aspects of his oeuvre: paintings, collages and sculptures. There is also a presentation of the less well known sides of this controversial and multi-talented artist’s work, including films, ballet, dress design, window decorations and happenings. We are presented with a new picture of an artist who notoriously staged himself and who had made experimentation the leading light of his life work. His departure point was surrealism from which he constantly forged new paths, and his original concern with the most essential aspects of human experience still seems fresh and flippant.

OPEN WORKSHOP / IN FULL BLOOM: THE GOTTORFER CODEX
8 MARCH – 9 AUGUST 2009
Follow the conservators restoring the Museum’s unique and hitherto inaccessible 4-volume florilegium (flower book) on parchment from 17th century Gottorp Castle in South Schleswig. The restoration of the delicate gouaches will be undertaken before your eyes in one of the exhibition rooms of the Museum. The public will be able to follow the small but visible progress day by day, and gain an insight into the minute work of the conservators.

SUMMER EXHIBITION / NEW ACQUISITIONS
2 MAY – 9 AUGUST 2009
A presentation of new acquisitions and donations to the Museum in recent years. The exhibition shows a great number of the finest acquisitions of Danish and international art with superb works from the early Renaissance to the latest contemporary art.

CHRISTIAN LEMMERZ/LARGO
16 MAY – 6 MARCH 2010
There is a critical meeting between the present day and classical education and romantic wit in the works of the German-born Danish sculptor Christian Lemmerz (b. 1959). As in its musical namesake, LARGO demands a slow tempo as the underlying rhythm when the body is confronted by the long stretch between birth and death. The installation, which consists of completely new works in bronze, has been specially created for the Museum’s venue.

NICOLAI ABILDGAARD
29 AUGUST 2009 – 3 JANUARY 2010
The works of one of the major figures of Danish art are presented on a larger scale than ever before, where we experience both the breadth and the main works of this versatile and in many ways controversial artist. Nicolai Abildgaard (1743-1809) was active at a time of political unrest and upheaval when there was a sharp confrontation between tradition and renewal. As a young artist he rebelled against the current classicism and his political views were quickly affected by inspirations from the French Revolution in particular. This exhibition celebrates the bicentenary of his death and is one of the most all-embracing presentations of his oeuvre ever. His paintings are the main focus, but drawings, graphic art and furniture design also contribute to a picture of the breadth of his production and artistic work. The exhibition is the result of collaboration between the Louvre in Paris and Hamburger Kunsthalle, where it will be shown first.

NATURE STRIKES BACK
10 OCTOBER 2009 – 7 MARCH 2010
This comprehensive exhibition on the occasion of the UN Copenhagen Climate Change Conference portrays the relationship between man and nature in all the art forms (sculpture, painting, graphic art, etc.) from Antiquity to the present day. The wide-ranging but carefully staged selection of works presents a very topical narration of man’s view of nature over the ages. This stretches from the poetical and symbolic concept of the relationship which was established both artistically and intellectually long ago in Antiquity to the attempts of the present day to drive nature out and marginalize it. The exhibition also looks at what happens to the notion of being able to control nature, when it suddenly strikes back and seizes our attention. The exhibition offers a wonderful journey through many centuries of art, from Antiquity and the apocalyptic religious rhetoric of the Middle Ages to the staging of nature in the Baroque period up to the necessary attempts of the present to create new ways of relating to nature so that we may perhaps ensure the survival of both man and nature.

IMPACT
31 OCTOBER 2009 – SPRING 2010
The exhibition presents an exclusive selection of contemporary international artists who work in very varied mediums and whose concern is themes related to global climate change and the relationship between the individual and its surroundings. The exhibition is staged on the occasion of the UN Copenhagen Climate Change Conference in the autumn.

THE COLLECTION OF PRINTS AND DRAWINGS / 2 EXHIBITIONS
Statens Museum for Kunst continues to bring the Collection of Prints and Drawings to the forefront with two exhibitions yearly, which originate from the Museum’s research and the rich collection of more than 245,000 drawings, graphic works of art and photographs. These recurrent exhibitions will present exciting examples from 700 years of art contained in the Collection, and will be put into perspective with important loans from home and abroad.

JAKOB S. BOESKOV/ SIGGIMUND
4 APRIL – 6 SEPTEMBER 2009
The Danish artist Jakob S. Boeskov (b. 1973) has been very much in the public eye in recent years due to a number of original manifestations which have impacted on real life – especially the political world - both critically and satirically. Boeskov employs his alter ego Siggimund in this exhibition in the Collection of Prints and Drawings to describe a restless and dissipated artist’s life, in which the personal ups and downs are transformed into satire and poetry in a tangled mixture of personal and political statements. There is an additional bonus, in that some of Boeskov’s personal favourites, including Asger Jorn, Guy Debord and Haldór Laxness, will be involved in the exhibition, where the artist’s new drawings and videos will be inscribed in spray-painted murals.

HAARLEM MANNERISTS 1580-1600 /THE INGENIOUS PICTURE
10 OCTOBER 2009 – 17 JANUARY 2010
This exhibition provides a rare insight into a fascinating chapter of Netherlandish art. The exhibition provides a broad selection of graphic works by the Haarlem Mannerists and gives a picture of a period in Dutch art when aestheticism and elaboration both in form and content were dominant, and when artists experimented intensely with the relationship between the work and the viewer. Pictorial creation and sophistication were in focus, as well as narration, stemming from historical, biblical, and mythological sources. The exhibition is based on the unique collection of Netherlandish graphic art in the Collection of Prints and Drawings.