Art News | The National Gallery of Denmark Presents "Toulouse ...

Written by Christian Enevoldsen Sunday, 02 October 2011 22:34

Copenhagen.- The National Gallery of Denmark is proud to present "Toulouse-Lautrec: The Human Comedy" on view through February 19th 2012. This exhibition will present a wide range of works, focusing mainly on Toulouse-Lautrec?s prints housed at the Gallery?s Department of Graphic Arts. Pivotal points of the exhibition will include the urban space and how it stages gender and identity. A cripple descended from aristocratic stock who became the controversial chronicler of modern-day Paris and ended his brief life ravaged by syphilis and alcoholism. The story of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec can very easily simply become the oft-told tale of this quirky artist who, for better or worse, became as one with his own art and circle of motifs.

This autumn?s major exhibition at the Royal Collection of Graphic Art at the National Gallery of Denmark moves out of the shadow of the mythology surrounding the artist. Featuring more than 130 works, the exhibition presents a sharply focused image of an artist whose depictions of the Parisian entertainment scene dissected and commented on modern existence by means of striking and groundbreaking effects.

More than any other artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901) stands as the enfant terrible of French late 19th century art. Over a brief but intense period of slightly more than 15 years the artist infiltrated the city?s entertainment scenes, interpreting virtue and vice across boundaries of class and social distinction without compromise. The city, which was described in Lautrec?s own day as a stage, became the starting point of his art. The entertainment industry was the microcosm he used to record how the players on the urban scene staged themselves and their desires, regardless of gender and class. Lautrec?s circle of motifs focuses on theatres, circuses, brothels, caf?s, and dance halls, particularly in Montmartre. Here he created a repertoire of figures that comprised dancers, singers, actors, prostitutes, and their audiences and clients. Exercising his keen eye for tragic comedy this gallery of characters became an obvious source of subject matter in his work on decoding urban existence.

The exhibition offers a veritable parade of such portrayals, demonstrating how Lautrec used caricature as a way of making shrewd observations of the social games being played; games which were set against the backdrop of a growing consumer culture and often centred on sexuality and desires. Lautrec?s artistic identity and anti-bourgeois attitude prompted him to transgress the boundaries between popular and highbrow culture, prefiguring aspects of 20th century avant-garde art. Parallel to his purely artistic work he also created illustrations and advertisements marketing a range of products and experiences. The exhibition focuses attention on Lautrec?s graphic works and on selected drawings. It shows how he, with his keenly honed sense for the commercial market and mass communication, found his own radical and innovative idiom, particularly within the graphic medium ? which includes his groundbreaking posters. In his graphic experiments he employed simplification, stylisation, and exaggeration to achieve a hitherto unseen form and effect that had a strong impact on the public conscience ? an idiom which means that his artistic takes on the human condition remain as fresh and mischievous today as when they were created.

Statens Museum for Kunst (English: "Statens Museum" or sometimes "National Gallery of Denmark") is the Danish national gallery located in Copenhagen. The museum collects, registers, maintains, researches in and handles Danish and foreign art dating from the 14th Century till the present day, mostly with their origins in western culture circles. As far as the Danish art is concerned the museum must invest in and maintain representative collections. The collection of the Danish National Gallery originates in the Art Chamber (Danish: Kunstkammeret) of the Danish monarchs. The most important purchase during Morell's term as Keeper was "Christ as the Suffering Redeemer" by Andrea Mantegna. Since then a great variety of purchases have been made. During the 19th century the works were almost exclusively by Danish artists, and for this reason the Museum has an unrivalled collection of paintings from the so-called Danish Golden Age. That the country was able to produce pictures of high artistic quality was something new, and a consequence of the establishment of the Royal Danish Academy of Arts in 1754. More recently, the collection has been influenced by generous donations and long-term loans. In autumn 1998, an extension was opened designed by the architects Anna Maria Indrio and Mads M?ller from Arkitektfirmaet C. F. M?ller. This new building was constructed in the park behind the original building and is connected to it by a glass-covered walkway, 'the street of sculptures'. The 'street' stretches along the full length of the museum, and within it concerts and dance performances are held. The old and new buildings are connected by one large-scale amalgamation between past and present. Facing the front is the old building and from ?stre Anl?g is a new and modern building - seen from the side is a glass-covered street that connects the old and new buildings. The museum's collections constitute almost 9,000 paintings and sculptures, approx. 300,000 works of art on paper as well as more than 2,600 plaster casts of figures from ancient times, the middle-ages and the Renaissance. The major part of the museum's older collections comes from the art chambers of Danish kings. The museum contains collections of art dating from the twelfth century. In the older European and Danish collections there are represantations by Mantegna, Titian, Tintoretto, Breugel, Peter Paul Rubens, Jordaens, Frans Hals, Bloemaert, Gysbrechts and Rembrandt. The modern collection comprises works by Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Fernand Leger, Henri Matisse, Amedeo Modigliani and Emil Nolde. Local Danish painters are richly represented with the styles of Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg, Oluf H?st, Edward Weihe, Olaf Rude and Haral Giersing as well as the Danish sculptor Carl Bonnesen. Modern art is a substantial part of the Royal Collection of Paintings and Sculpture. The collection is representative, not only of Danish art history, but also of foreign art which has influenced Danish artists. Thus the museum has a considerable collection of paintings by Emil Nolde and an important selection of American and German contemporary art. The Royal Cast Collection consists of plaster casts of statues and reliefs from collections, museums, temples, churches, and public places throughout the world. The Collection of Prints and Drawings contains about 300,000 works: copperprints, drawings, etchings, watercolours, lithographic works and other kinds of art on paper. In 1843 the collection, which had so far been the king's private collection, opened to the public. When the present Statens Museum for Kunst was finished in 1896, the Royal Collection of Prints and Drawings was moved into the building together with The Royal Collection of Paintings and The Royal Cast Collection. Although the collection contains a great number of foreign works, Danish art makes out the main part of the acquisitions. Nowhere in the world can you get such a detailed and broad overview over Danish art from the 17th century until the present day. The works of the collection are shown in the permanent exhibition, the special exhibitions of the Department and, as something quite special, in the Print Room of the museum.? Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.smk.dk

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Source: http://www.artknowledgenews.com/02_10_2011_22_36_17_the_national_gallery_of_denmark_presents_toulouse_lautrec_the_human_comedy.html

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