1917: A New Era

1917: A New Era, at the Johannes Larsen Museum, Denmark

The exhibition is about the decisive year 1917, when a plethora of leading artists and authors gathered at Johannes Larsen's home, setting the tone for a new direction in Danish art.

2017 is the hundredth anniversary of the building of Johannes Larsen's workshop. This will be marked with a major exhibition that takes its focus from the artist's home and reaches out for the ideas and thoughts that were expressed there. Larsen's home was one of the meeting places of the day, where the rebellious younger generation, with Axel Salto in the forefront, met the established cultural elite, which included Fritz Syberg, Johannes Larsen and Johannes V. Jensen.

The world situation at the time, especially in light of World War 1, reached Axel Salto in Kerteminde and created, in the summer of 1917, a tense mood. New thoughts were thought in Johannes Larsen's peaceful world, and the new time was heralded with the establishment of the critical art magazine, “Klingen" (The Blade) at the opening party for Johannes Larsen's new workshop in 1917.

The exhibition captures the social aspect of the party through a reconstruction of the festivities in the workshop. In other words, you will, as guest, be able to pick up on the mood of the party through a multi-sensory combination of sight, sound, smell and - of course, taste - if you choose to order the party menu in the museum's café.

The art in the exhibition concentrates on the group of artists who stayed at Larsen's home that summer, and stretches from the avant-garde over to the work of the Funen painters during the period. Our focus is on spreading knowledge through first-hand experiences, visual impressions, sensing and telling, but the exhibition will also lead visitors to a deeper examination of the role of the artist's home and its development in what turned out to be perhaps the most turbulent year in newer art history. This aspect will be elucidated through a comprehensive and richly illustrated catalogue, which looks at the literary and artistic trends that grew out of the artists' home in Kerteminde, and especially the publication of “Klingen".