New Book | Carl Gustaf Pilo
Available from Nyt Nordisk Forlag (New Nordic Publishing) . . .
Charlotte Christensen, Drømmebilleder: Carl Gustaf Pilos Portrætkunst (Copenhagen: Nyt Nordisk Forlag, 2016), 448 pages, ISBN 978-8717044999, 400KR.
Carl Gustaf Pilo (1711–1793), der var rokokoens fremmeste hofmaler i Norden, fødtes i Sverige, men levede i Danmark i størstedelen af sin tid som kunstner. Skæbnen bragte ham fra en periode som adelens portrættør i Skåne til hofmalerposten i Danmark, hvor han særligt kom til at definere den gyldne tid for de danske riger under Frederik V til de turbulente år med Christian VII og Struensee. Han blev i 1772 udvist af Danmark, og skabte sig derefter i Gustaf IIIs Sverige sin alderdoms fremragende og helt særegne mesterværk, maleriet af den svenske konges kroning.
Som kongernes kunstner var Pilos liv afhængigt af de skiftende magtkonstellationer i Danmark, og han var med til at forme kunstakademiet i København. Bogen sætter Pilos kunstnergerning ind i den kulturhistoriske ramme, den hører til i, foruden at den redegør for de politiske og idehistoriske omvæltninger i de nordiske lande, der var med til at forme hans til tider dramatiske livsløb.
Bogen præsenterer et rigt udvalg af Carl Gustav Pilos kunstværker, der i dag er spredt på herregårde og slotte, i privatsamlinger og museer, med nyoptagelser af de ofte kolossal store malerier og detaljer, der er karakteristiske for hans malemåde.
Charlotte Christensen har været vidt omkring i det danske kunstliv. Samtidens billedkunst og teaterliv har haft en vigtig plads i hendes arbejde inden for museumsverdenen og som direktør for Kunstforeningen i København. Hun har undervist på universiteterne i Aarhus og København og på Statens Teaterskole. Formidlingen af ældre kunst har haft lige så stor prioritet, og 1600-tallet var i centrum, da hun var generalsekretær for Christian IV-året 1988. Christensen har skrevet monografier om Jens Juel og Nicolai Abildgaard og bidraget med artikler om Vigilius Eriksen og Laurits Tuxen til kataloget for Frederiksborgmuseets udstilling Danmark og zarernes Rusland, 1600–1900. Hun er også kendt som forfatter til Gyldendals bog om engle. Seneste har Christensen været tilknyttet Designmuseum Danmark og publiceret museets art nouveau-samling og udgivet … At give af et godt Hjerte og et glad Sind: Kunstindustrimuseets Venner, 1910–2010.
National Gallery of Denmark’s Plans for Digitizing Its Collection
Frederik Ludvig Bradt (1747–1829), Coin Cabinet at Rosenborg, etching, 1791
(Copenhagen: SMK / The National Gallery of Denmark, KKS8030)
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As of today, a search of the SMK collection with the filter for 1700 to 1800 turns up 8204 works. From the press release (2 May 2016). . .
The SMK, The National Gallery of Denmark, launches a digital project that will, over the course of the next four years, make the National Gallery’s art collection freely available to everyone—for any purpose, ranging from fun to serious production. The objective is to make art relevant to more people. The project is made possible by a generous donation from the Nordea Foundation of DKK 11.7 million (EUR 1.6 million).
In countries such as The Netherlands, the USA and the UK, large museums have digitised their collections and made them available to everyone for years now, thereby endeavouring to meet the demands of present and future consumers of art and culture who are no longer satisfied with being spectators. They want to participate actively, and they want to put culture to use in their own lives. The lessons learned from these efforts are clear: being able to actively select, re-purpose, remix, and share works means that far more people access and use the collections. Including people who would not usually have visited or used the museum.
The SMK collection comprises more than 250,000 works of art. Approximately one per cent of that collection is on display and can be accessed by visitors to the museum in Copenhagen. In recent years the SMK has launched a range of pilot projects to explore how the museum’s digital treasures can be used in new ways, in new contexts and by all users. These initiatives have progressed by increments and been modest in scale, but the results have shown that there is demand for such activities. In fact, the findings proved so promising that the SMK will now, thanks to a generous donation of DKK 11.7 million (EUR 1.6 million) from the Nordea Foundation, embark on a new project: SMK Open. Scheduled to run until 2020, the SMK Open project will pave the way for truly democratic use of the museum’s art collections.
The history and many stories of art will continue to be explored and presented by the museum’s in-house experts. At the same time the SMK will open up its collection in digital form, offering a huge toolbox full of building blocks in the form of high-quality image files that can be used by anyone for any purpose—for example for books, education materials, online blogs, Wikipedia articles, film and TV productions, interior design and outdoor decoration—the only limit is the users’ imagination.
“SMK Open makes the National Gallery of Denmark’s art collection—which belongs to us all—available to anyone at all times. There will be no admission fee, but plenty of excellent and informative presentation materials and a warm invitation to have fun, play around and explore the wondrous world of art. The project will make even more people co-owners and co-producers of our shared art heritage,” says Henrik Lehmann Andersen, director of the Nordea Foundation, which aims to support and enhance ‘the good life’ for everyone.
The SMK Open project gives each work its own digital webpage that can also contain materials such as film footage, articles, audio tracks, x-rays of the work, and information on any future events or exhibitions at the museum which feature that work. In addition to this, thousands of photographs of art works will be made available in the highest possible resolution and quality. All works on which no copyright restrictions apply can be used by anyone for any purpose.
Users can also comment on each work, contribute their own information and insights or enter into a dialogue with the museum staff. Users are also invited to take part in the project’s development and will be involved in shaping and defining the end result right from the outset.
“In recent years we at the SMK have worked to offer many different gateways to the world of art. Our experience tells us that art becomes relevant to more people when they can approach it in their own way. Many wish to actively use art in their own lives. SMK Open will make it possible to download and use a wealth of information from the SMK toolbox—and at the same time we want to incorporate the users’ insights and information about the collection in that toolbox. This is because we want to forge closer links between our collection—which belongs to public—and the greatest possible number of people we can—of any age, gender, level of education and social or cultural background,” says Mikkel Bogh, director of the SMK.
Exhibition | William Hogarth: A Harlot’s Progress and Other Stories
William Hogarth, A Harlot’s Progress, Plate 6, 1732, 364 × 440 mm
(Copenhagen: SMK – The National Gallery of Denmark)
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Press release (22 February 2016) from the National Gallery of Denmark:
William Hogarth: A Harlot’s Progress and Other Stories
William Hogarth: En skøges liv og andre historier
Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, 14 April — 7 August 2016
Curated by Vibeke Vibolt Knudsen
A young country girl arrives in London in search of work. Instead she ends up a prostitute, and her life spirals steadily downwards, bringing stints in prison and venereal disease. With the exhibition William Hogarth: A Harlot’s Progress and Other Stories, the SMK turns back time to visit eighteenth-century city life in London. The exhibition presents work by the British artist and satirist William Hogarth (1697–1764), who invented a new kind of narrative picture series that served up satirical and moral points with acerbic wit. His style of social critique was unique for the time, focusing on many highly topical subjects: Prostitution, poverty, violence, drunkenness, deceit, self-aggrandisement and desire.
Three series hold a particularly prominent position in Hogarth’s oeuvre: A Harlot’s Progress (1732), A Rake’s Progress (1735), and Marriage à-la-mode (1745). Each series describes a main protagonist who strives to climb the rungs of the class ladder, but loses their way in debauchery, heading directly for self-destruction and death.
In his autobiographical notes Hogarth states that his pictures are scenes from a play and his subjects are actors strutting soundlessly on the stage. His stories became highly successful, attracting a large audience that included the lower echelons of society as well as the elite. Hogarth insisted that a picture must capture the viewer’s attention by entertaining and pleasing the eye, thereby allowing the serious aspects of its subject to gradually sink in as the narrative progresses towards its tragic climax.
Hogarth’s art is closely linked to London and city life. Around the year 1700 the city had swelled to a population of 600,000, making it the largest city in Europe. He made daily records of the chaotic urban crowds, of all the many and varied forms of life unfolding in the city’s streets and houses; he had a particularly keen eye for the contrasts between different social strata and how they met and clashed.
William Hogarth: A Harlot’s Progress and Other Stories is an exhibition of works from The Royal Collection of Graphic Arts, which is one of the oldest collections of prints and drawings in the world. Housing more than 240,000 works, the collection has roots that date back to the sixteenth century. In 1843 the collection was opened to the public, and in 1896 it was relocated to the new National Gallery of Denmark alongside The Royal Collection of Paintings and The Royal Cast Collection.
The catalogue is available from Arnold Busck:
Vibeke Vibolt Knudsen, William Hogarth: En skøges liv og andre historier (Odder: Narayana Press, 2016), 96 pages, ISBN 978-8792023971, 128KR.
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