Musée des Arts Décoratifs already has works by Danish artists in its collection, including pieces by Louise Hindsgavl, Steen Ipsen, Martin Bodilsen Kaldahl and Bente Skjøttgaard. With this acquisition, the museum can now add two untitled pieces from 2020 by Michal Geertsen and Female with Tweed Fez (2020) and Storksnest (2020) by Pernille Pontoppidan Pedersen.
Sculptural ceramic objects
Michael Geertsen characterizes his ceramic practice as an eclectic manifesto with references to different eras of art, design and architecture history. He is inspired by the traditional processes involved in form and glazes but combines the classic techniques with modern and sculptural constellations. Geertsen’s ceramics thus belongs in an open field between classic design and experimental craft.
Geertsen (b. 1966) is a trained potter and graduated from the Royal Danish Academy – Design in 1993. He is represented in several collections, including Designmuseum Danmark, Victoria and Albert Museum in London and FuLe International Ceramic Art Museum in Fuping in China. In addition to ceramic art, Geertsen has also created functional ceramics and design objects in collaboration with Kähler and Fritz Hansen, among others.
Seeing beauty in ugliness
Pernille Pontoppidan Pedersen differs from other ceramicists by breaking with the classic rules for both form and glaze. She incorporates traces of classic ceramic objects, such as vases, dishes and bowls, but in a distorted form. Pontoppidan Pedersen appreciates the flaws and the ugly aspects of the beautiful as a dogma that makes room for something new to emerge. In the two pieces acquired by Musée des Arts Décoratifs, her unique grasp of glazes and forms is particularly noticeable, not least in her original combination of materials, which mixes wood and ceramic.
Pernille Pontoppidan Pedersen (b. 1987) lives and works in Silkeborg and trained as a ceramicist at the Royal Danish Academy – Design, Bornholm. She is represented in several collections, including CLAY Museum of Ceramic Art Denmark and the Danish Arts Foundation.
