Museet for Religiøs Kunst · adresse · Tlf. xx xx xx xx · info@mail.dk
Art from the border region
8-3-2020 - 13-12-2020
As we celebrate the anniversary of the reunion, we highlight 27 artists with the exhibition ART FROM THE BORDER REGION. The artists are all born or have been active in South Jutland or the former duchies Schleswig and Holstein.
The works of art have been selected with an existential and religious focus. They are kindly lend from The Art Museum Brundlund Castle in Aabenraa, which is a part of Museum Sønderjylland. With the physical move of the art from south to north we hope to rise an awareness in North West Jutland about the reunion as a national event.
The artists from the border region have no particular common motive or artistic style. Yet several of the works of art in the exhibition draws more or less clear geographical traces, e.g. Jeppe Madsen-Ohlsens (1891-1948) pictures from Christiansfeld or O.C. Ottesens (1816-1892) work "A Rose in the Soldiers buttonhole" from 1888, where the pink colour and the memorial medal refers to the Second Schleswig War in 1864.
The exhibition covers 300 years, as the oldest work of art in the exhibition is from 1714 and painted by Frederik IV and Christian VI’s court painter Hendrick Krock (1671-1738), and the newest work of art is by Karin Lind (1969-) from 2013.
The exhibition is loosely constructed around themes as mythology, death, landscapes and transition. Transition between life and death and between air and water, or between what is and what is not. In other words the border region is a region of transition, where people has experienced being born in one area, which during their lifetime have changed from Danish to German (after the Second Schleswig War) or from German to Danish (after the referendum in 1920).
The artists whom were active before 1864 lived in the Danish unified state, where the border was at Altona just outside Hamburg. After the Second Schleswig War the Danish border was moved to Kongeåen just south of Kolding and Denmark was not just geographical and economic reduced, but greatly culturally reduced. Some of the artists, who experienced this change, was C.A. Jensen (1792-1870) and O.D. Ottesen. After the referendum in 1920 the borderline was placed north of Flensburg and reflected to a higher degree than before the delineation of the peoples cultural belonging. Artists as Jeppe Madsen-Ohlsen and Franciska Clausen (1899-1986) lived to see their birthplace change from German to Danish after the reunion in 1920.
ART FROM THE BORDER REGION reflects on one hand The Museums of Religious Arts focus on the religious and existential and on the other hand the collection at The Art Museum Brundlund Castle.
The exhibition is supported by
The Knud Højgaard foundation