The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art is an

art museum An art museum or art gallery is a building or space for the display of art, usually from the museum's own Collection (artwork), collection. It might be in public or private ownership and may be accessible to all or have restrictions in place. A ...

located on the shore of the Øresund Sound in

Humlebæk Humlebæk is a town within the municipality of Fredensborg in North Zealand in Denmark, approximately 35 km north of Copenhagen. Humlebæk is located at the shore to Øresund and has a population of 9,758 (2022).

, north of

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

. It is the most visited art museum in Denmark, and has an extensive permanent collection of

modern Modern may refer to: History * Modern history ** Early Modern period ** Late Modern period *** 18th century *** 19th century *** 20th century ** Contemporary history * Moderns, a faction of Freemasonry that existed in the 18th century Phil ...

and

contemporary art Contemporary art is the art of today, produced in the second half of the 20th century or in the 21st century. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art is a dynamic com ...

, dating from

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

to the present day; in addition, it has a comprehensive programme of special exhibitions. The museum is also acknowledged as a milestone in modern

Danish architecture Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...

, and is noted for its synthesis of art, architecture, and landscape, such as was showcased in an installation entitled "Riverbed" shown in 2014–2015. The museum occasionally also stages exhibitions of work by the great

impressionists Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating ...

and

expressionists Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

, such as

Claude Monet Oscar-Claude Monet (, , ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of impressionist painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During ...

, who was the focus of a major exhibition in 1994. The museum is included in the Patricia Schultz book ''

1,000 Places to See Before You Die ''1,000 Places to See Before You Die'' is a 2003 travel book by Patricia Schultz, published by Workman. A revised edition was published in November 2011. The new edition is in color. An iPad app debuted in December 2011. Among the "1,000 places ...

'' and ranks 85th on a list of the most visited art museums in the world (2011).

Location

The museum is located by the

Øresund Øresund or Öresund (, ; da, Øresund ; sv, Öresund ), commonly known in English as the Sound, is a strait which forms the Danish–Swedish border, separating Zealand (Denmark) from Scania (Sweden). The strait has a length of ; its width v ...

coast in the North Zeeland region, some north of central

and south of Elsinore. From the regional train station in Humlebæk, it takes 10–15 minutes to walk to the museum.

History

The name of the museum derives from the first owner of the property, Alexander Brun, who named the villa after his three wives, all called Louise. The museum was created in 1958 by

Knud W. Jensen Knud John Peter Wadum Jensen (7 December 1916 - 12 December 2000) was the founder of the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_ ...

, the owner at the time. He contacted architects

Vilhelm Wohlert Vilhelm Wohlert (27 May 1920 – 10 May 2007) was a Danish architect. His most notable work was on the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebæk, Denmark. Earlt life and education Wohlert was born in Copenhagen, Denmark. He trained at the R ...

and

Jørgen Bo Jørgen is a Danish, Norwegian, and Faroese masculine given name cognate to George People with the given name Jørgen * Jørgen Aall (1771–1833), Norwegian ship-owner and politician * Jørgen Andersen (1886–1973), Norwegian gymnast * Jørge ...

who spent a few months walking around the property before deciding how a new construction would best fit into the landscape. This study resulted in the first version of the museum consisting of three buildings connected by glass corridors. Since then it has been extended several times until it reached its present circular shape in 1991. In late November 2012, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art launched

Louisiana Channel Louisiana Channel is a non-profit web-TV channel based at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebaek, Denmark. By the end of the first year, 28 November 2013, Louisiana Channel had published 130 videos featuring international artists, film m ...

, a web-TV channel contributing to the development of the museum as a cultural platform. In 2013, the museum's music department launched Louisiana Music, a webpage dedicated to musical videos produced by the museum in collaboration with world-famous musicians. View from the Louisiana museum lawn

Collections

Modern art

The museum has a wide range of modern art paintings,

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

s and videos dating from

to the present day, including works by artists such as

Roy Lichtenstein Roy Fox Lichtenstein (; October 27, 1923 – September 29, 1997) was an American pop artist. During the 1960s, along with Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, and James Rosenquist among others, he became a leading figure in the new art movement. Hi ...

Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationsh ...

Anselm Kiefer Anselm Kiefer (born 8 March 1945) is a German painter and sculptor. He studied with Peter Dreher and Horst Antes at the end of the 1960s. His works incorporate materials such as straw, ash, clay, lead, and shellac. The poems of Paul Celan hav ...

, Alberto Giacometti,

Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

Yves Klein Yves Klein (; 28 April 1928 – 6 June 1962) was a French artist and an important figure in post-war European art. He was a leading member of the French artistic movement of Nouveau réalisme founded in 1960 by art critic Pierre Restany. Klein w ...

Robert Rauschenberg Milton Ernest "Robert" Rauschenberg (October 22, 1925 – May 12, 2008) was an American painter and graphic artist whose early works anticipated the Pop art movement. Rauschenberg is well known for his Combines (1954–1964), a group of artwor ...

David Hockney David Hockney (born 9 July 1937) is an English painter, draftsman, printmaker, stage designer, and photographer. As an important contributor to the pop art movement of the 1960s, he is considered one of the most influential British artists o ...

and

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 ...

. The videos are often housed in room settings where the viewer is made to feel part of the scene being portrayed. Perched above the sea, there is a sculpture garden between the museum's two wings with works by artists including

Henry Moore Henry Spencer Moore (30 July 1898 – 31 August 1986) was an English artist. He is best known for his semi- abstract monumental bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art. As well as sculpture, Moore produced ...

Alexander Calder Alexander Calder (; July 22, 1898 – November 11, 1976) was an American sculptor known both for his innovative mobiles (kinetic sculptures powered by motors or air currents) that embrace chance in their aesthetic, his static "stabiles", and his ...

, and Jean Arp.

Wessel-Bagge collection

Besides the collection of modern art, Louisiana also displays a collection of

Pre-Columbian art Pre-Columbian art refers to the visual arts of indigenous peoples of the Caribbean, North, Central, and South Americas from at least 13,000 BCE to the European conquests starting in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. The Pre-Columbian era c ...

. Consisting of more than 400 objects, the collection was a donation from the Wessel-Bagge Foundation in 2001. It is the personal collection left by Niels-Wessel Bagge, a California-based Danish dancer, choreographer, and art collector, who died in 1990.

Exhibitions

The Louisiana Museum mounts temporary exhibitions, including installations such as Danish-Icelandic artist

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 ...

's site-specific work "Riverbed", which was made specifically for the museum and shown from August 2014 to January 2015. The work was in three sections with a theme that related art, architecture and nature, in which a rocky riverbed was created to take up the museum's entire south wing. Louisiana Museum - concert hall

Concert hall

The Concert Hall was built in 1976 in connection with the West Wing which had been built in 1966 and 1971. Its acoustics make it especially suitable for chamber music, but it is also used for other musical genres as well as a wide array of others events and activities such as debates, lectures and symposiums. The chairs are designed by

Poul Kjærholm Poul Kjærholm (1929 – 1980) was a Danish designer. Born in Østervrå, Denmark, Kjærholm began his career as a cabinetmaker's apprentice with Gronbech in 1948, attending the Danish School of Arts and Crafts in Copenhagen in 1952. ...

and the rear wall is decorated with paintings created for the site by

Sam Francis Samuel Lewis Francis (June 25, 1923 – November 4, 1994) was an American painter and printmaker. Early life Sam Francis was born in San Mateo, California,

. In 2007 began a project to produce concerts filming and musical clips directed by Stéphan Aubé. All the movies are available for free on the Louisiana Music website.

Sculpture garden

The grounds around the museum contain a landscaped sculpture garden. It consists of a plateau and ground that slopes towards the Øresund and is dominated by huge, ancient specimen trees and sweeping vistas of the sea. It contains works by such artists as Jean Arp,

Max Ernst Max Ernst (2 April 1891 – 1 April 1976) was a German (naturalised American in 1948 and French in 1958) painter, sculptor, printmaker, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was a primary pioneer of the Dada movement and Surrealism ...

Max Bill Max Bill (22 December 1908 – 9 December 1994) was a Swiss architect, artist, painter, typeface designer, industrial designer and graphic designer. Early life and education Bill was born in Winterthur. After an apprenticeship as a silversmith ...

Henri Laurens Henri Laurens (February 18, 1885 – May 5, 1954) was a French sculptor and illustrator. Early life and education Born in Paris, Henri Laurens worked as a stonemason before he became a sculptor. From 1899 to 1902, he attended drawing class ...

Louise Bourgeois Louise Joséphine Bourgeois (; 25 December 191131 May 2010) was a French-American artist. Although she is best known for her large-scale sculpture and installation art, Bourgeois was also a prolific painter and printmaker. She explored a varie ...

Joan Miró Joan Miró i Ferrà ( , , ; 20 April 1893 – 25 December 1983) was a Catalan painter, sculptor and ceramicist born in Barcelona. A museum dedicated to his work, the Fundació Joan Miró, was established in his native city of Barcelona i ...

and

. The sculptures are either placed so that they can be viewed from within, in special sculpture yards or independently around the gardens, forming a synthesis with the lawns, the trees and the sea. There are also examples of

site-specific art Site-specific art is artwork created to exist in a certain place. Typically, the artist takes the location into account while planning and creating the artwork. Site-specific art is produced both by commercial artists, and independently, and can ...

by such artists as

Enzo Cucchi Enzo Cucchi (born 14 November 1949) is an Italian painter. A native of Morro d'Alba, province of Ancona, he was a key member of the Italian Transavanguardia movement, along with his countrymen Francesco Clemente, Mimmo Paladino, Nicola De Maria, ...

Dani Karavan Daniel "Dani" Karavan ( he, דני קרוון, 7 December 1930 – 29 May 2021) was an Israeli sculptor best known for site specific memorials and monuments which merge into the environment. Biography Daniel (Dani) Karavan was born in Tel A ...

and

George Trakas George Trakas is a sculptor who was born in Quebec City in 1944 and has lived in New York City since 1963. Many of his projects are site-specific installations, and he describes himself as an environmental sculptor. He often recycles local mate ...

Louisiana Literature Festival

Louisiana Literature festival Louisiana Literature Festival is an annual literary festival which takes place around the third weekend of August at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 35 km (22 mi) north of Copenhagen, Denmark. The festival began in 2010, and each year it featur ...

is an annual festival that takes place at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. Launched in 2010, the festival each year features about forty writers from across the world. They perform on stages around the museum and in the sculpture park, and attract more than 15,000 people each year.

Directors

*1958 —1993:

*1995 —:

Lars Nittve Lars Nittve (born 17 September 1953) is a Swedish museum director, curator, art critic and writer. He was the founding Director of Tate Modern in London; former Director of the Moderna Museet in Stockholm; the founding Director of Rooseum – ...

*1998 —: Steingrim Laursen *2000 —: Poul Erik Tøjner

Partners and sponsors

Partners

Republic of Fritz Hansen Fritz Hansen, also known as Republic of Fritz Hansen, is a Danish furniture design company. Designers who have worked for Fritz Hansen include Arne Jacobsen (1902–1971), Poul Kjærholm (1929–1980), Hans J. Wegner (1914–2007) and Piet Hein ...

is the Louisiana's main corporate partner through 2024.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Louisiana Museum Of Modern Art Sculpture gardens, trails and parks in Denmark Concert halls in Denmark Modern art museums Contemporary art galleries in Denmark Event venues established in 1958 Art museums established in 1958 1958 establishments in Denmark Museums in the Capital Region of Denmark Art exhibitions in Denmark Art museums and galleries in Denmark