Museum Lousiana

We ended the three castle tour Tuesday with a visit to my absolute favorite museum in the world: The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, which is directly on the shore of the Øresund Sound in Humlebæk, 35 kilometers north of Copenhagen with a spectacular view of the Sea, Sweden and the island Ven.


The museum has a large permanent collection of over 3000 pieces of modern and contemporary art, many of them very important art pieces, dating from WWII to now. It is one of the biggest in Scandinavia and includes artists like Picasso, Giacometti, Warhol, Rauschenberg, Lichtenstein, Baselitz, Fontana, Pollock etc.. The museum has several wings, all connected through glass corridors. Except for the special exhibition, I never felt like I was inside really.


The Louisiana is a wonderful synthesis of art, the landscape, architecture and the visitors. The landscape and the buildings have something labyrinthine to them, like an unusual maze and it feels as if - as a result of the unique interaction between nature, art and architecture - that the visitor itself becomes part of the process. No longer is the visitor standing on the outside, but is rather inside of it all, maybe one could even go so far and say become art themselves.


It is not quiet in this museum, people are sun bathing, having picnics, children are running around, people are discussing pieces of art, take pictures everywhere, there is a dock for swimming and lots of places to sit and hang out. This is not the typical museum atmosphere.


This is most apparent in the Sculpture Park, strolling the paths and exploring the niches and hidden places is a big part of the Louisiana experience. The view of the Øresund, with the sculptures all around is breathtaking. The sculpture garden contains many works from artists like Henry Moore, Alexander Calder, Max Ernst, Jean Arp, Henri Laurens and Joan Miró. I have always liked Moore, I love these huge, organic shapes and John turned me on to Calder.


I had been to the museum a long time ago and always wanted to go again, of course due to kids being tired from the busy day, I could not stay too long. They entertained themselves - supervised by Peter (Thank you) - in the children’s wing (Børnehus). On three levels are different activities for children of all ages. Painting, sculpture, architecture, collages, really anything you can imagine. It had a great atmosphere and the kids did some painting and made some clay sculptures, Johanna did the bunny and Sophie made a clay Bailey - our host’s dog.

Louisiana’s exhibition program claims to cover a wide range primarily focusing on the interaction between the different art forms and they succeeded in their special exhibition this summer “Green Architecture for the Future”. I wish I could have had more time, I liked the way it was done. The focus is on new architecture that is designed in accordance with our changing and very complex world (i.e. climate, population, materials, processes, environment, culture etc.). There were different themes and it was a very multimedial exhibition. It was a great symbiosis of art, statistics, architectural models, documentaries and sensory input. I could have spent a day there.


If there is any museum I want to visit again and again, it is this one!