Bikubenfonden and the Gallery
Bikubenfonden (foundation) has a strong profile in the cultural sector. One intent of the foundation is to showcase and promote Danish culture by putting the spotlight on world-class innovation and artistic accomplishments.
The National Gallery of Denmark was with the support from Bikubenfonden able to welcome the public to the exhibitions Nature Strikes Back, Bob Dylan.The Brazil Series and recently the exhibition Hammershøi and Europe.
Hammershøi in 2012
In the Spring of 2012 the foundation supports the grand Vilhelm Hammershøi (1864-1916) exhibition. Vilhelm Hammershøi was one of the most important Danish artists of his time. The exhibition will involve an examination of the interaction between the art of Hammershøi and the contemporary painting in Europe. Furthermore the exhibition will shed new – and investigative – light on Hammershøi by bringing his art into dialogue with contemporary European colleagues.
Vilhelm Hammershøi has often been regarded as a singular, isolated figure within the Danish and European art scene. The exhibition Hammershøi and Europe marks a break with this tradition. It takes the artist down new roads by juxtaposing his works with those of other artists from his era such as Whistler, Carriére, Fantin-Latour, Gauguin, and Khnopff.
Bob Dylan. The Brazil Series
Bob Dylan has always worked on other projects concurrently with his music. Since the 1960s he has, among other things, worked with pictorial art. A number of album covers and small-scale exhibitions have been visible signs of Dylan’s early work as a visual artist. According to Dylan, an artist must always be moving and changing, and so an oscillation between different modes of expression strikes him as entirely natural.
Dylan has recorded his impressions and thoughts while travelling in Brazil, capturing people, events, and places in a plethora of sketches. Back in the US, some of these many scraps of paper served as the basis of The Brazil Series. In his paintings Dylan demonstrates his phenomenal powers of observation. He uses his images to tell us stories that range from the everyday and descriptive to the violently dramatic, incorporating strong elements of fiction. The stories from Brazil flow out to reach us from the cracks opened by the artist; each fragment adding another aspect to the overall journey, Dylan invites us to take.
With the support from Bikubenfonden the guests at the National Gallery of Denmark had a unique opportunity to explore another facet of the artist Bob Dylan. The exhibition The Brazil Series presented 40 all-new, never-before-seen paintings created by Bob Dylan specifically for this exhibition.
Nature Strikes Back
2009 was the year when the climate was put on the agenda for real. And the same was the case for the agenda of the National Gallery of Denmark, but with a twist, however. On the occasion of the UN climate conference in Copenhagen, the National Gallery of Denmark was able, with the support of a number of foundations, to create a comprehensive, thematic exhibition based on the Gallery’s collections.
The exhibition did not directly address the climate, but focused instead on human relationships with nature as seen from the perspective of Western art. By considering art, science and philosophy in this context, it is possible to reflect on questions such as: Where did things go wrong? How has our relationship to nature changed? How do scientific revolutions make their mark in art?
