Louisiana Museum of Modern Art
Edvard Munch – To Kvinder på Stranden - Two Women on the Beach (1898)
- Description
- Specifications
- The Maker
In Munch's production, one encounters not least a large number of self-portraits, which can be seen as a protracted self-confrontation. From the apparently self-confident 23-year-old, to Self-portrait at 2 and a quarter of a night, where Munch, at 80, has painted himself as an old man—with death as a shadow behind him.
In connection with Munch's painted self-portraits, a number of photographs appear. Munch himself spoke about his Fate Photographs—the photographed self-portraits from 1902-1908, which both resemble the painted self-portraits and which also express the same fateful melancholy: Munch used photography as a tool in his work with painting, a form of work of which the Louisiana exhibition showed many examples on.
Munch designed several of his motifs based on man's challenges with identity: the relationship to society, to nature and to himself. Like Kierkegaard and Freud, Munch had a special psychological ability to look inward.
From his own traumatic experiences, Munch developed his very own symbolism, and created images that express man's deepest emotional experiences, an extremely subjective art, an expressionism in Munch's sense.
- Brand:Louisiana Museum of Modern Art Denmark
- Country: Printed in Denmark
- SKU: LA-108021-FJ
- Material: Printed on paper.
- Dimensions:33.1" x 23.4" (A1)
From the beginning, the founder, Knud W. Jensen, intended for the museum to be a home for modern Danish art. But after only a few years he changed course, and instead of being a predominantly Danish collection, Louisiana became an international museum with many internationally renowned works.
Louisiana's close contact and collaboration with the international arts and cultural milieu has since been one of the museum's greatest strengths. And also one of the main reasons that it has been possible for Louisiana to present an exhibition program that has resonated so strongly with the public over the years. Louisiana has thus achieved a standing as one of the world's most respected exhibition venues, and in the future, it will be able to attract exhibitions and artists at a level that few other museums—either in Denmark or abroad—can match.
Knud W. Jensen put into action many of the period's visionary ideas about modern museum operation, including a desire for art to have a wide audience. It has always been the view at Louisiana that art is not just for an elite but includes experiences and visions for the many.
Why is it called Louisiana?
Many people wonder about the name of the museum. The short explanation is this—a nobleman and his three wives.
Knud W. Jensen chose to "take over" the name of the country house that he later converted to a museum. The property had been built and named in 1855 by Alexander Brun (1814-93), who was an officer and Master of the Royal Hunt and who married three women who were all named Louise.
Here at Louisiana, he was a pioneer in beekeeping and the cultivation of fruit trees.
From the beginning, it was Knud W. Jensen's vision to create a museum with soul, where the public could encounter artwork—not as something pretentious, but rather something that spoke directly to the viewer. And he emphasized the need for "supplementary content" that could help bring alive and enrich the environment: The more opportunities for experience that the program offers, the more Louisiana lives up to its idea—to be a 'musical meeting place' and a milieu that is engaged in contemporary life.
—Knud W. Jensen
