It is a great pleasure that the museum has been given the opportunity to show a large part of the late Greenlandic artist Hans Lynge's paintings, sculptures and graphic works in the exhibition Hans Lynge - Passion is needed! Many of the works will leave Denmark within a few years to become part of a future National Gallery in Greenland, but before that happens, there will be an opportunity to experience them here at the museum in Lemvig. The artist's widow, Inge Lynge, has donated the works to the Foundation behind the National Gallery.

Hans Lynge (1906-1988)
Hans Lynge was rightly called a Greenlandic cultural pioneer. Born in Nuuk in 1906, Lynge was originally trained as a teacher and catechist, but due to tuberculosis he had to give up this work. He became involved in politics, theatre and art, but it wasn't until the age of 41 that he began his training as a visual artist at the Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen.
During the 1960s, he found his form, combining nature, man and myth with a sense of colour and often humour.

In Lynge's imagery, you encounter the magnificent Greenlandic nature, the people and not least the characters from Greenlandic legends and myths. To understand himself as a Greenlander, he believed that you had to know your own background in a broad sense - from the old legends and myths to the arrival of Hans Egede and up to the present day. The Greenlandic landscape, the Greenlandic stories, the Christian faith and the human being merge into one in Lynge's works. He was inspired by Grundtvig and the romantic idea that God is also present in the pre-Christian pagan faith. Like Grundtvig, Lynge rewrote the past by inscribing an already inherent Christian faith in a pre-Christian era. Despite Lynge's seemingly retrospective motifs, taken (but also rewritten) from Greenlandic mythology, Lynge's works had a future-orientated aim in terms of strengthening Greenlandic identity and national feeling.

Lynge and West Jutland
There are many threads linking Lynge to the Museum of Religious Art and to West Jutland in general. Lynge, who was also a passionate theatre man, was involved in the Greenlandic theatre Tuukkaq, which was located in Fjaltring in Lemvig Municipality; he also spent some time at the summer house in Vester Husby. But first and foremost, he was a friend and collaborator with the artist Bodil Kaalund, who was the driving force behind the Museum of Religious Art. Together they established the art school in Nuuk, and it was also Bodil Kaalund who completed Lynge's tapestry decoration at the town hall in Nuuk after his death in 1988. Due to Bodil Kaalund's connections to the Greenlandic art scene, the museum has periodically exhibited works related to Greenland, and the museum has a collection of Greenlandic art and ethnography.

The exhibition project is part of the Museum of Religious Art's exhibition programme in 2025: Views on and from Greenland.

The exhibition programme is generously supported by:

Augustinus Fonden
Aage og Johanne Louis-Hansens Fond
A.P. Møller og Hustru Chastine McKinney Møllers Fond til almene Formaal
Edith & Godtfred Kirk Christiansens Fond
Færchfonden
Ny Carlsbergfondet