The collection consists mainly of graphic prints but also includes sketchbooks and paintings by Anne-Birthe Hove (1951–2012), who was one of the Greenland’s most significant visual artists. It offers unique insight into Hove’s wide-ranging oeuvre and will eventually be donated to the future National Gallery of Art in Greenland. A group comprising representatives of Greenland National Museum & Archives, SMK – National Gallery of Denmark, Nuuk Art Museum and Fonden til oprettelse af Grønlands Nationalgalleri for Kunst (Foundation for the establishment of the National Gallery of Art in Greenland) have jointly acquired the collection.
Life, nature and people
Hove’s work spans both figurative and abstract expressions. Thus, she portrays alcohol abuse and misery, bleak housing blocks, family life in front of the TV and ravens in wind and rain but also masters the abstract expression in sensuous readings of landscapes and nature in Greenland. Hove is a master at capturing the essences of lines in snow and has a rare ability to allow emptiness to inhabit the pictorial space she creates among the elements in the picture.
The collection contains works from the beginning to the end, from Hove’s early days as a student until the time just before her death. As a whole, it thus represents an important artistic testimony of Greenland’s recent history and a unique insight into the relationship between Greenland and Denmark, from the time when Greenland was a Danish county through the period of Home Rule to Self-Government, which was introduced in 2009.
A national gallery on the drawing board
For a number of years, a group of visual artists have sought to realize a vision of creating a National Gallery of Art in Greenland, which is to contain collections of Greenlandic art. At this time, the museum remains on the drawing board. In 2010, an architectural competition was held that was won by BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group), and it is hoped that the plans can be realized within the foreseeable future.
About Anne-Birthe Hove
Anne-Birthe Hove (1951–2012) trained at Grafisk Værksted (Graphic Workshop) in Nuuk, Design School Kolding and the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. For more than four decades she was influential in shaping the Greenlandic art scene both as a practicing artists and as a teacher at Grønlands Kunstskole (Greenland’s Art School) and a co-founder of the Grenlandic artists’ association KIMIK and, later, Fonden for Grønlands Nationalgalleri for Kunst. Hove died in 2012 on the Danish island of Bornholm.
