A Collector of Quality

The exhibition "A Collector of Quality - Erik Andresen's collection of modern art" presents the leading artists of the end of forties and the beginning of the fifties, whose Danish-French artistic links were of such great importance to the development of European Art. 

The period was typified by two main currents: Abstract Expressionism and the "concrete" or more Constructivist artists. Erik Andresen's collecton is grouped around these opposite poles of abstract art, and The Art Centre Silkeborg Bad has chosen in 1997 to present the concrete non-figurative art whose most important school at the end of the forties developed around the Galerie Denise René in Paris.

The formally analytical painting and sculpture of the forties and the fifties involve fruitful interaction between playful fable and coolly evaluative consistency - an interplay which is fascinating to follow.

There is hardly any concentration of works of art which gives a more consistent account of these factors than Erik Andresen's collection. Here we can see all the most important elements in the development of concrete art in Europe after the Second World War - and the Danish constantly meets the international in this unique private collection.

The Heather Blooms for Tinkers and Painters

The exhibition uses paintings, drawings etc. to show the landscape and the lifestyles of people and animals on the Jutland heaths through the ages. The primary starting-point is the work of Hans Smidth, but this is supplemented by high quality works by other painters of the era. These include Christen Dalsgaard, Georg Emil ibert, P.C. Skovgaard, Jens Vige, Vilhelm Kyhn, Hans Agersnap, F. Vermehren and others.
The exhibition has been built up with relevant "props" from the period, and the works etc. are accompagnied by informative texts.