The Esbjerg Art Museum ( da, Esbjerg Kunstmuseum) is an independently owned art museum in

Esbjerg Esbjerg (, ) is a seaport town and seat of Esbjerg Municipality on the west coast of the Jutland peninsula in southwest Denmark. By road, it is west of Kolding and southwest of Aarhus. With an urban population of 71,698 (1 January 2022)

in southwest

Jutland Jutland ( da, Jylland ; german: Jütland ; ang, Ēota land ), known anciently as the Cimbric or Cimbrian Peninsula ( la, Cimbricus Chersonesus; da, den Kimbriske Halvø, links=no or ; german: Kimbrische Halbinsel, links=no), is a peninsula of ...

, Denmark. Founded in 1910, in 1962 it moved into a new building in the City Park designed by Jytte og Ove Tapdrup. Since 1997, the museum has formed part of a complex which also contains the

Esbjerg Performing Arts Centre The Esbjerg Performing Arts Centre ( da, Musikhuset Esbjerg) is a concert hall with theatrical facilities in the centre of Esberg in southwest Jutland, Denmark. Completed in 1997 to designs by the Utzons, it forms part of a complex which also cont ...

History

Founded as ''Esbjerg Kunstforening'' (Esberg's Art Association) in 1910, the museum was first located in the public library (''Esbjerg Bibliotek'') in 1927. In 1930, it purchased works by modernists such as

Harald Giersing Harald Giersing (24 April 1881 – 15 January 1927) was a Danish painter. He was instrumental in developing the classic modernism movement in Denmark around 1910-1920. He is remembered as one of Denmark's most important 20th-century artists both f ...

Edvard Weie Viggo Thorvald Edvard Weie (18 November 1879 - 9 April 1943) was a Danish Modernist painter. He was a recipient of Eckersberg Medal in 1925. He died during 1943 in Frederiksberg. Biography Weie was born in Copenhagen, Denmark. His father went ...

and

Vilhelm Lundstrøm Vilhelm Lundstrøm (26 May 1893 – 9 May 1950) was a Danish modernist painter. He was a central figure in early Danish experimental art and introduced French cubism to Denmark. Biography Vilhelm Henry Lundstrøm was born in Copenhagen, Den ...

. After moving into the new building in the City Park in 1962, the museum acquired

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wi ...

works by

Richard Mortensen Richard Mortensen (23 October 1910 – 6 January 1993) was a Danish painter. Biography Richard Strange Mortensen was born in Copenhagen, Denmark. He studied between 1931 and 1932 at the Royal Danish Academy of Art in Copenhagen. Influenced by the ...

and

Robert Jacobsen Robert Julius Tommy Jacobsen (4 June 1912 – 26 January 1993) was a Danish sculptor and painter. The Danish Robert Award is named in his honor. Biography Jacobsen was born in Copenhagen. He was self-taught as a sculptor. During World War I, ...

as well as works from artists participating in the Linien and Linien II associations.

Architecture

Originally known as ''Kunstpavillonen'' (the Art Pavilion), the building in the City Park was designed by Jytte and Ove Tapdrup. Commanding an excellent position near the

Water Tower A water tower is an elevated structure supporting a water tank constructed at a height sufficient to pressurize a water distribution system, distribution system for potable water, and to provide emergency storage for fire protection. Water towe ...

overlooking the harbour, the complex consists of a low permanent art gallery wing to the north and a two-storey exhibition area to the south. After the music conservatory moved into new premises in 1974, the museum gained additional space for the municipal collection which was extended with many important new works. The complex adopts a simple, refined style which takes advantage of the sloping ground with floors at various levels and a number of balconies. The concrete structure has aluminium windows and

spandrel A spandrel is a roughly triangular space, usually found in pairs, between the top of an arch and a rectangular frame; between the tops of two adjacent arches or one of the four spaces between a circle within a square. They are frequently fill ...

panels decorated with pebbles. In 1997, it was connected to the newly completed

by means of an extensive foyer serving both institutions. In this connection, various extensions were made to the museum, latterly in 2005.

Collection

The permanent collection covers Danish works from the beginning of the 20th century to the present day including foreign works by painters who have influenced Danish art. There is a focus on

Realism Realism, Realistic, or Realists may refer to: In the arts *Realism (arts), the general attempt to depict subjects truthfully in different forms of the arts Arts movements related to realism include: *Classical Realism *Literary realism, a move ...

and on

Abstract art Abstract art uses visual language of shape, form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. Western art had been, from the Renaissance up to the middle of the 19th ...

. In addition to works by Lundstrøm, the Linien artists, Richard Mortensen and Robert Jacobsen, there are paintings by

Asger Jorn Asger Oluf Jorn (3 March 1914 – 1 May 1973) was a Danish painter, sculptor, ceramic artist, and author. He was a founding member of the avant-garde movement COBRA and the Situationist International. He was born in Vejrum, in the northwest c ...

Ejler Bille Ejler Bille (6 March 1910 – 1 May 2004) was a Danish artist. Biography Ejler Bille was born in Odder, Denmark. He was the son of Torben Holger Bille and Anna Kirstine Lysabild Jensen. Bille graduated from Birkerød State School in 1930, and then ...

, Ernest Mancoba and other COBRA artists. The sculpture exhibition includes works by

Jørgen Haugen Sørensen Jørgen Haugen Sørensen (3 October 1934 – 18 November 2021) was one of Denmark's most eminent sculptors. He had his artistic debut at the acclaimed and prestigiouSpring Exhibition(''Forårsudstillingen'') at Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen ...

, Svend Wiig Hansen and

Thomas Bang Thomas Bang (born 6 September 1938) is a Danish sculptor who in the 1970s contributed to Conceptual art and Pop art in the United States. Biography Born in Copenhagen, as a young man Bang became interested in Surrealism as practised by Giorgio d ...

. Artists from the 1980s include

Christian Lemmerz Christian Lemmerz (born January 30, 1959) is a German-Danish Sculpture, sculptor and Visual arts, visual artist who attended the Accademia di Belle Arti in Carrara, Italy, from 1978 to 1982 and the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts from 1983 to 198 ...

Michael Kvium Michael Otto Albert Kvium (born 15 November 1955) is a Danish artist. He has excelled in a number of fields such as painting, illustrating, sculpting and various performance genres. Since the early 1980s, he has created grotesque realistic works, ...

, Claus Carstensen and

Peter Bonde Peter Bonde (born 14 February 1958) is a Danish former professional footballer who is the manager of Næstved BK. In 2018 he became the head coach of the China women's national under-20 football team The China women's national under-20 football ...

while the 1990s are illustrated by works from Christian Skeel, Morten Skriver (Skeel & Skriver),

Per Bak Jensen Per Bak Jensen (born 22 April 1949) is a Danish landscape photographer. His desolate images of nature or industrial sites often convey an almost metaphysical impression. His unusual subjects include corn stubble, twigs in the snow or a few isolated ...

and Nina Saunders. A number of installations have been included since the beginning of the new millennium including two large displays by

Olafur Eliasson Olafur Eliasson ( is, Ólafur Elíasson; born 5 February 1967) is an Icelandic–Danish artist known for sculptured and large-scale installation art employing elemental materials such as light, water, and air temperature to enhance the viewer's ...

References

External links

Esbjerg Kunstmuseum website
} {{Authority control Buildings and structures in Esbjerg Museums in the Region of Southern Denmark Art museums established in 1962 Art museums and galleries in Denmark Modern art museums