Denmark Day 2013

Today we have students from Denmark visiting so lets take a quick look some of my favorite Danish at art and media and learn a little bit more about the home of the Vikings.

In the world of film Babette's Feast is a modern Danish classic and films such as: Dancer in the Dark, Dogville, and the far out their Melancholia came from Danish director Lars von Trier who was part of the Dogme movement which came about in the 90's with like: Thomas Vinterberg, Søren Kragh-Jacobsen and Lone Scherfig.

In the world of art I've always admired the work of Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg, who  studied  with Jacques-Louis David in Paris as well as work from contemporary artist such as: Per Kirkeby, Richard Winther, and Olafur Eliasson who did the terrific piece shown in the video above in 2008 titled New York City Waterfalls.

Hans Christian Andersen is probably the most famous author from Denmark and there's a terrific Little Mermaid statue based on his 1913 story by Edvard Eriksen in Copenhagen that you might recognize. Danish design and architecture is also pretty amazing notably Jørn Utzon's iconic Sydney Opera House which earned him the distinction of becoming only the second person to have his work recognized as a World Heritage Site while still alive.  Finally in music modern groups such as: The Raveonettes, Mew, and Lars Ulrich, drummer of the band Metallica are Danish

Denmark Day

Today we will be welcoming some students from Denmark into our classes and as we are reviewing the artists and styles we learned about in our art history unit I though I'd share some well known art from their home country.  The sculpture below entitled "Boy" is a favorite of mine from artist Ron Mueck and is one of the spotlight works from the ARoS museum in Aarhus.

Here is a piece from which was installed nearby in NY from Danish artist Olafur Eliasson from 2008 where he created 4 New York City Waterfalls (this one under the Brooklyn Bridge) that flowed for a little more than 3 months and were illuminated at night as a public art project.