Selected grants

With a donation from the New Carlsberg Foundation, Designmuseum Danmark has acquired three principal works of contemporary Danish art and design

Architecture and the creative mental space of art come together in Kaspar Bonnén’s site-specific works at Aarhus School of Architecture.

In a frontal view, a young woman meets the beholder’s gaze straight on, her arms folded behind her head. The Golden Age artist Wilhelm Marstrand’s Maria is clearly posing as instructed by the great painter, but the artwork is also interesting from a modern-day gender-conscious perspective.

John Kørner’s painting Dronning Louises Bro (Queen Louise’s Bridge) was recently installed at the Danish Student House in Paris. The piece touches on something that is immediately recognizable to many of the Danish students staying at the residence. At the same time, it points far beyond its central Copenhagen location and all the way to Paris.

Harald Giersing’s Balletscene (Ballet Scene), a principal example of Danish modernist art, will now be on public display at SMK – National Gallery of Denmark, where it joins the museum’s existing collection of 26 works by Giersing. Thus, the painting, which was formerly in a private collection, can now finally be seen and admired by everyone.

Ahmad Siyar Qasimi’s monumental painting "Lygtefører" (Torch Guide) draws on both concrete and emotional experience. From January 2023, the sensuous image will be on display at the Trapholt museum of modern art, craft and design in Kolding.

In the intersection of the busy streets Amagerbrogade and Amager Boulevard in Copenhagen stands the bronze sculpture GODOT by Christian Lemmerz.

The New Carlsberg Foundation’s extensive donation of works to Krogerup Folk High School in Humlebæk north of Copenhagen brings the world close and invites reflection and engagement – all in the spirit of the school.

Lea Porsager’s grand work of landscape art KLIT (Dune) creates a living beach environment in the centre of Denmark’s third-largest city, Odense. It forms the basis of a coastal biotope and contains references to one of the most talked-about and admired experiments in the science of physics.

In the summer of 2019, the Carlsberg Foundation initiated the extensive restoration of the Carlsberg Academy located on the outskirts of the Copenhagen district of Valby. In collaboration with landscape architect Kristine Jensen artist Cathrine Raben Davidsen has created 16 bronze vessels for the newly restored Conservatory, centrally placed in the building.

Spatial qualities played and play an active role in the creation and experience of Astrid Marie Christiansen’s and Joachim Koester’s decorative projects at Krogerup Folk High School. While Christiansen conjures up a playful sweets garden in dialogue with the school’s modernist interior architecture, Koester’s photographs, solar system and paths on the linoleum floor of the lecture hall draw a cosmic mind map.

Den nye hjørnestue (The New Corner Salon) by Morten Søndergaard is a chamber of curiosities to be explored. A room for meetings of minds and conversations about art, science and politics, just like the historical corner salon from the time when Kamma and Knud Lyne Rahbek lived in the house. The large total installation was created with support from the New Carlsberg Foundation.

Snow was an obvious topic for Paul Gauguin and his impressionist paintings from his time living in Copenhagen with his family. The Glyptotek has expanded its excellent collection of French art with a painting depicting Danish winter weather in the residential area of Frederiksberg.

In her installation Blood Relations artist Iben Høj challenges the potential of the material in an experiment with transparency, form and movement that explores the spatial setting of this large work of textile art. With support from the New Carlsberg Foundation, Trapholt has now acquired the piece for its collection.

Ribe Art Museum recently expanded its collection with two paintings from Italy. The artists, Constantin Hansen (1804–1880) and Viggo Pedersen (1854–1926), shared a fascination with Italy, but their paintings are very different, both in style and in thematic treatment.

Olafur Eliasson’s installation Det lyttende spejl (The listening mirror) welcomes patients, relatives and staff to the newly opened Regional Hospital Gødstrup. The mirror pavilion offers a space for contemplation and highlights the viewer’s movements.