Käthe Kollwitz – Mensch, National Gallery of Denmark (SMK), Copenhagen
I’ve been a fan of Käthe Kollwitz ever since I saw the etching Woman with Dead Child (1903) in Berlin many years ago; it cut into my heart like a jagged knife. That is why my favourite exhibition this year is undoubtedly SMK’s retrospective of the great German artist whose graphic works, drawings, and sculptures are aglow with social and political commitment grounded in a poignant humanism. Her unsentimental depictions of society’s dark sides, of human life, war, and death continue to appear keen, sharp, and timeless. On the museum’s façade, the iconic poster Nie wieder Krieg! (No More War! 1924) hangs in the form of a large banner – a terrifyingly relevant call to action in our destabilised world.
Gerda Thune Andersen, Carl Nielsen and Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen Grant 2024, Den Frie Centre of Contemporary Art, Copenhagen
The Association of Visual Artists (BKF) recently urged the Nordic Council to include visual art in the annual Nordic cultural prize festivities, a proposal that seems both obvious and necessary. Visual artists should be appreciated on a par with other artists and ideally before they “have one foot in the grave,” as the 92-year-old sculptor Gerda Thune Andersen remarked upon receiving the Carl Nielsen and Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen honorary grant this year. In the group exhibition of well-chosen grant recipients, Andersen’s lifelong explorations of materials and forms made a profound impression. For me, it also brought to mind visual artist Henriette Heise’s research project on late works and how artists manage to persevere despite challenges.
Filip Vest, Self Tape, Ringsted Galleriet, Ringsted
In the guise of a blue creature with downturned ears and red eyes behind long fake eyelashes, Filip Vest lured me into the world of cultural workers, where blood, sweat, and tears are fundamental aspects of the job. While audience members found themselves in a backstage realm filled with makeup mirrors and loose script pages from mainstream films, Vest’s performance also served as a critique of putting people into alienating and limiting categories – a tendency that is not limited to the cultural industry, but seems to permeate our contemporary world. Vest’s personal starting point as a queer performance artist rose above self-absorption, and acted instead as a springboard for potential conversations about stereotypes, power dynamics, and the divide between “us and them.”
– Helle Fagralid is an art historian and a regular contributor to Kunstkritikk. She is also an actress with many years of experience in film and theatre. Fagralid also writes for the journal Fagbladet Billedkunstneren and is a new board member of AICA Denmark.
For this year’s contributions to the Advent Calendar, see here
