Shetani. African wooden sculptures by 6 Makonde artists

An unique collection privately owned by Danes contains works by 6 named artists from the Makonde people. The sculptures are obtained in Tanzenia in connection with work in developing countries at the end of the 1960ies in close contact with the artists. The greatest part of the collection is made up of Shetani, which in Swahili means "spirit". In Shetani the artists have worked creatively with myths of the people.
Humour and eroticism are central elements. Wooden sculptures are made from mpingo - ivory - using simple tools. At the Art Centre the exhibition emphasizes the esthetical and artistic dimensions of the collection. The six Makonde artists had the opportunity of concentrating on their work for a period of time resulting in this group of very fine sculptures; it's therefore not a question of anonymous African art or ethnography.
The publishing house Rhodos has simultaneously adapted a book about the anthroplogist and photographer  Jesper Kirknæs and is published in Danish as well as in English.

Night Symbols (nat tegn)

At dusk by the Arnakke Source in the park of the Art Centre the visitors will be able to experience the installation of Night Symbols by lyric poet Astrid Gjesing. She works in the borderland between poetry and visual arts, partly in the space between the inner meaning of words and outer physical space, partly with how light and darkness can reinforce each other.

Egill Jacobsen 

Together with a couple of other works owned by the Art Centre 12 paintings by Egill Jacobsen are displayed in the Spa Building. Paintings received as a long-time loan from Egill and Evelyn Jacobsen Foundation.

Anna Klindt Sørensen

The painter Anna Klindt Sørensen (1899-1985) lived most of her life in Ry by Silkeborg. After a short time at the Art Academy in Copenhagen she went to Paris for a period of 17 years. There she frequented several theachers of the subject, among others Fernand Leger, Andre Lhote and Marcel Gromaire. Her own expression goes through many phases. Towards the middle of the thirties it is flavoured by poetical expressionism where the brush strokes and colours have their own life in compositions that remain unencumbered by the motifs. She left an extensive collection of her own works and established a trust for support of woman artists.

Danish Art 1930-50

The exhibition especially throws light on the interplay between a Danish tradition of visual arts and impulses from international art. It reveals some of the background for the development of Danish artists who each with her/his original contribution towards the expressionist and concrete art became part of an international environment. Most of these artists were born around 1910 and include among others Freddie Mortensen, Bille, Bjerke-Petersen, Jorn, E. Jacobsen, R. Jacobsen, C.H. Pedersen, Alfelt, Heerup, Ferlov and Thommesen.

Most of them sought abroad and gained contact with avant-garde currents like Bauhaus, constructivism and surrealism. Photos show the works of the foreign artists that one knows Danish artists could view at exhibitions. They included among others Kandinsky, Miro, Munch, Picasso, Ernst and Dali, but also the contact with Icelandic artists has significance. African art from Kiersmeier Collection at the National Museum was one of the sources of inspiration, as well as children's art and that of the mentally handicapped. The visits to museums also lead to greater focus on Danish Middel Ages and the Viking Age. One section aims at incoporating the now more or less forgotten artists who belonged to "the Abstracts" but who might deserve renewed viewing, e.g. Hans Ølgaard, Knus Nielsen, Kujahn Blask and Eugene de Sala. Parallel with the new trends other Danish traditions which flavourished were Landscape Painting and Social Realism. The main generation in the exhibition was among others Danish traditions. Therefore Weie, Lundstrøm, Ipsen, Søndergaard, Frederiksen among others will be represented at the exhibition. Last but not least a number of periodicals published by artists will be on display, the forum for discussion of artistic questions during the period. The exhibition, organized by Per Hovdenakk, is accompanied by a book on the theme, published in Danish and in English.

Mikael Hansen

Mikael Hansen is a contemporary artist. He will create a landart sculpture at a selected location in the Art Centre Park.

Swords and Dragons.

Stone art from Danish Middle Ages photographed by Poul Pedersen and in rubbings by Ludvig Stubbe Teglbjerg.

With focus on a number of themes and individual features which like the runes from the Jelling Stone go back to the Viking Age, you will be able to experience photographer Poul Pedersen's numerous photographs of Medieval motives, e.g. bows, ashlars, portal decorations, and baptismal fonts from Danish Roman Middle Age churches, etc. He worked during the first part of the sixties on these Middle Age studies together with Asger Jorn who then planned a 30 volume publication on Scandinavian Art fra Antiquity to the Middle Ages. A selection of Roman stones and a number of "castings" are part of the exhibition and in this way the Roman granite art in the exhibition will be visible to the public in various media.

Together with Poul Pedersen's photographs contemporary visual artists are included, e.g. Ludvig Stubbe Tegjbjerg. He will be represented in a larger section with rubbings, which will reproduce the artistic qualities of the Roman granite works in natural size and shape.