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The Beauty of the Moment
About Perspective
Perspective is a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to research that is of relevance to Danish art. The articles will primarily address art found at Danish museums, and will present research on theory, method or museology based on Danish museum practices.
The reduced artefact: A case study in data visualisation and digital art history
This article introduces the field of digital art history with a case study as its point of departure: a visual analysis, enacted by means of artificial intelligence, of digital photographs from the SMK – National Gallery of Denmark collection. To this end, the article explains a number of topics and concepts important for the work undertaken regarding visual issues in the digital field.
A Jab of Relief. Anna Ancher's 'A Vaccination'
This article sheds light on Anna Ancher’s painting 'A Vaccination' from 1899 as well as on advances in public health promotion during the artist's own day. Unexpectedly, the painting has gained renewed topical relevance: as this article is published, the Danish population is getting vaccinated against Covid-19 to fight the global pandemic.
Shock – Vilhelm Bjerke Petersen and his Surrealist Exhibition at Den Frie in 1935
This article explores Vilhelm Bjerke Petersen’s (1909–57) Surrealist endeavours in the 1930s, and the exhibition Cubism = Surrealism at Den Frie Udstillingsbygning in 1935.
Denmark at the Venice Biennale 1940 to 1960: The national road towards international success
The article analyzes Denmark's participation in the Venice Biennale in the period 1940-60 - including the Danish participation in the fascist 'War Biennale' during World War II.
The Black Mermaid
This article situates I Am Queen Mary (2018) by Virgin Island artist La Vaughn Belle and Danish-Caribbean artist Jeannette Ehlers, and examines the reception of the sculpture and its affinity to Black artistic practices across the Atlantic.
Unveiling the Destiny of a Nation: The representations of Norns in Danish Art (1780-1850)
In Norse mythology, the Norns are a group of supernatural beings. In the article, the author examines how the Norns have been portrayed in Danish art, and their significance for the construction of a Danish national identity in the 19th century.
Wilhelm Marstrand – A cosmopolitan artist caught in a vortex of images
This article is part of a series of articles about the Danish painter Wilhelm Marstrand (1810–73) published on the occasion of the exhibition Wilhelm Marstrand – The Great Storyteller, 2020-21 at Fuglsang Art Museum, The Nivaagaard Collection, Ribe Art Museum and The Skovgaard Museum.
Up close. Wilhelm Marstrand’s portraits
This article is part of a series of articles about the Danish painter Wilhelm Marstrand (1810–73) published on the occasion of the exhibition Wilhelm Marstrand – The Great Storyteller, 2020-21 at Fuglsang Art Museum, The Nivaagaard Collection, Ribe Art Museum and The Skovgaard Museum.
National art vs. national art. Wilhelm Marstrand’s and P.C. Skovgaard’s views on national art around 1854
In 1854 the Danish newspaper Dagbladet proclaimed the existence of two factions on the Danish art scene: ‘National’ and ‘Cosmopolitan’. This article discusses Wilhelm Marstrand's and P.C. Skovgaard's position in the same ‘National’ faction and theirviews on national art.
From Italy with Love – of Denmark. Wilhelm Marstrand and P.C. Skovgaard in Venice in the 1850s
This article is part of a series of articles about the Danish painter Wilhelm Marstrand (1810–73) published on the occasion of the exhibition Wilhelm Marstrand – The Great Storyteller, 2020-21 at Fuglsang Art Museum, The Nivaagaard Collection, Ribe Art Museum and The Skovgaard Museum.
‘Undated’. Hans Smidth’s Position in Danish Art
Hans Smidth (1839-1917) was a renowned artist in his own day. However, only few of his paintings can be conclusively dated, a fact that has contributed to his relative obscurity in subsequent art history writing. In this article, the author examines the challenges involved in dating his paintings long after they were painted.
‘Why do you dance to the tune of the French?’ Joakim Skovgaard and the first Danish pupils at the Atelier Bonnat
In this article, the author examines the impact of a range of Danish artists' stay in Paris from the mid-1870s to the early 1890s, where many of them studied under the French artist Léon Bonnat (1833–1922) at his Atelier Bonnat.
The Elephant in the Room: Post-war Portrayals of Man in Denmark and Germany
For more than 20 years after the end of World War II, the human figure constitutes what one might call the ‘elephant in the room’ in German art. The purpose with this article is t to offer an outside perspective on the Danish Portrayers of Man (‘menneskeskildrere’) – as represented by Palle Nielsen and Dan Sterup-Hansen – by comparing them to the contemporary German art scene. Not until 1965 did Georg Baselitz embark on his extensive series of depictions of fallen man.
Life, work and home-stead: A queer portrait of Kristian Zahrtmann
Around 1900, the Danish painter Kristian Zahrtmann creates a queer persona which cannot be separated from his art. In numerous paintings, he references himself, his dreams, and his home which – at the time – is clearly seen as an authentic self-portrait.
Zahrtmann’s Symposium: Ethics, History and Desire
The scene in Kristian Zahrtmann’s (1843-1917) Sokrates and Alkibiades, painted in 1911, is taken from Plato’s Symposium, which was one of the most widely used references for homosexual men among Zahrtmann’s contemporaries. Michael Hatt argue, that Zahrtmann’s use of this source is unlike other uses of Greek antiquity as an apologia for or a symbol of male homosexual love.
Alternative Female Roles in the History Paintings of Kristian Zahrtmann
During his lifetime, Kristian Zahrtmann (1843-1917) painted many works portraying women from the world of history and literature. What happens when the image is turned "upside down" with a queer interpretation of masculinity and performance?
Naked men, gazes and desire. Kristian Zahrtmann from a Nordic perspective
Kristian Zahrtmann’s (1843-1917) works allow the viewer to revel in male beauty – the paintings give generous opportunities to ogle men and their charms. Zahrtmann was not alone in his fascination for the subject of naked men in the early 1900s. Parallels within Nordic art offer further perspectives and reveal other artists who, through their works, contribute to a widespread adulation of the athletic male body.
Kristian Zahrtmann's Late History Paintings: The Artistic Persona of an Invert in Turn-of-the-Century Denmark (1995)
First published in Danish in Periskop. Forum for kunsthistorisk debat, 4, 1995, pp. 43-63
Introduction: Kristian Zahrtmann - Queer, Art and Passion
Five articles on Kristian Zahrtmann (1843–1917) as a queer artist.
Perceiving green – red, yellow and blue. The making and colour change of paintings by van Schrieck and Weie
How is our perception of an art work when pigments or colourants fade or unknowingly have disappeared? Will the eye compensate for this irreversible loss or are we left with a skewed impression or the artistic intent? Two paintings from the 17th and the 20th centuries attempt to offer an answer.
The Place of the Black Body in White History: Jeannette Ehlers’s decolonial interrogation of “the darker side of Western modernity”
European countries have been criticised for perpetuating colonial ways of thinking and white supremacy. This article asks: can contemporary art help us ‘decolonialise’ and rethink national history and identity, and create a space for racialised bodies in Western (art) history?
‘First you must draw, then you may paint’. P.C. Skovgaard the draughtsman
Skovgaard drew throughout his life and mastered a range of different drawing techniques. Aiming for wide-ranging insight into Skovgaard's use of drawing this article considers a varied selection from his very comprehensive production - from his earliest childhood drawings from the 1820s to his final pieces from the 1870s.
The topology of the image series. The singular and the composite in Kandinsky’s Small Worlds
What is the connection between a single image and the series that includes it? By using Kandinsky’s Small Worlds as an example this article investigates the series as a specific image category.
Girolamo Troppa’s ‘Four portraits of ancient philosophers’
Can Girolamo Troppa’s series be regarded as a visualisation of divine inspiration? And who are the four ‘philosophers’? The article discusses these questions, but also considers Troppa as a colourist and as a virtuoso painter.
A national collection on the drawing board. Centres for the collection of Danish drawings 1810–45
The idea of having a central collection of Danish drawings first arose back in the first half of the nineteenth century, and the earliest overtures for such a collection continue to have a great impact on our perception of Danish draughtsmanship today.
A humourist in the shadow of the swastika
How closely connected was Storm P. to the German nationalist movements in the 1930s and 1940s – was he a Nazi sympathiser? The article delves deeply into this controversial question about Denmark’s much-loved artist and humourist – a question first raised in 2008 by the weekly newspaper Weekendavisen.
Message in a Bottle to Systembolaget
Knud Pedersen came up with ideas and always realised them in the same distinctive way: one step at a time. His Systembolaget project began as an exhibition, but ended up as an exercise in making people partake without realising it.
Salvator Rosa’s Democritus and Diogenes in Copenhagen
Can Salvator Rosa’s paintings of Democritus and Diogenes be seen as reflections of the artist’s self-image as a Stoic painter-philosopher and of his endeavour to create sublime art? This complicated matter is elucidated in the present article.
Zinc, Paint loss and Harmony in blue
Degradation problems in Peder Severin Krøyer's paintings and the possible role of zinc white.
The Jew that Disappeared: C.W. Eckersberg and the Realm of Satire
Eckersberg's satire on the subject of playing the lottery underwent a significant change from drawing to graphic series; a development that may well have saved him from compromising his career.
“The Barber Painter”: John Christensen – a cult figure on the interwar art scene
The ‘Barber Painter’ John Christensen went from being a celebrated figure in the Danish art world to being a marginalized character in art history. Here new light is shed on John C. and his role in the art of his time.
For pleasure and for prizes. Danish plein-air painting of the 1820s
The introduction of plein-air painting in Denmark in the 1820s is traditionally attributed Eckersberg, but in fact students at the art academy were behind the initiative to paint outdoors.