A look at the ’90s

Avant-garde Moved into Brantebjerg

On Saturday, August 10, Galleri Brantebjerg in Nakke near Rørvig opened an extraordinary exhibition featuring ten young artists under the collective title “Directions and Trends in Young Art in the 90s.”The opening reception took place in the afternoon.

The exhibition gave the public an opportunity to experience art that was being created at the time by the younger, leading generation of artists. A shared characteristic was versatility, ranging from great humor to profound seriousness, while exploring new concepts of beauty. The works included painting, sculpture, installation, and photography.

The invited artists were characterized by their courage, energy, and strength in advancing the field of art. Several of them were already well established and frequently shown in museum contexts and galleries in major cities. Most had been educated at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen and were each working toward an international career. They lived and worked in Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Berlin, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, California, and Iceland.

The exhibiting artists were Olafur Eliasson, Nils Erik Gjerdevik, Tina Haurum, Kristian von Hornsleth, Frans Jacobi, Kaj Nyborg, Lars Bent Petersen, Hans Peterson, Peter Røssell, and Ian Schjals. The exhibition was organized in collaboration with Stalke Kunsthandel in Copenhagen, which was known for its international network among young artists.

New art was often met with skepticism or indifference, or simply rejected because it did not fit the taste of its time. Art evolved, as was well known. Van Gogh was a telling example: few people cared for his paintings during his lifetime, many found them ugly, and he sold only one painting, and that reluctantly as a gift. A hundred years later, it was difficult to understand why. He had lived in a transitional period marked by many new currents, much like the threshold to the next millennium that was being faced at the time.

The collective term for new art could very well be described as chaos. No one knew in which direction it was heading, unlike the first half of the 20th century, which had been defined by movements such as cubism, expressionism, surrealism, and constructivism. After that period, art flourished, and pop art—led by Andy Warhol—became a defining movement. Examples and developments related to pop art were well represented at Brantebjerg.

It remained an open question whether thick art history books would one day be written about the ten professional artists exhibiting at Brantebjerg. Visitors were encouraged to seize the opportunity, judge for themselves, and either confirm or reject the notion of chaos. One thing was certain: the exhibition was not boring.

Galleri Brantebjerg was open daily.

Olafur Eliasson, installation with candle and mirror, 1996

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