Christina goes to Copenhagen

Christina Jansen was working from Copenhagen last week which included visiting the eminent ceramist Bodil Manz near Jyderup.  The Gallery is celebrating Bodil Manz at 80 this coming Festival and the purpose of the studio visit was to choose work for the exhibition and make a visual record which will be shared this August.  Luckily, it was a very beautiful day, perfect for viewing Bodil’s iconic cylinders.  Bodil Manz is a senior Danish ceramist, and her studio practice has become synonymous with Danish design. She is known for her predominant use of ultra-thin, translucent eggshell porcelain to create distinctive cylindrical forms, anchored by bold, geometric abstractions.  The Gallery has represented Bodil since the 1990s and the artist has fond memories of Edinburgh.

Christina also visited Lis Ehrenreich in Copenhagen. She studied at the Jutland Academy of Fine Art in Arhus between 1976 and 1981, before establishing her own studio in 1981.  Her first solo exhibition in The Gallery was in 2019.  Due to the pandemic, we are still catching up with many of our international artists and we will announce a Lis Ehrenreich solo exhibition shortly.

Bodil and Lis both recommended Peach Corner which is a relatively new gallery for Danish and international ceramics. With varying curated exhibitions and a Wunderkammer – a Cabinet of Curiosities – showing specially selected pieces, Peach Corner presents different approaches to clay and studio ceramics, in both functional objects and sculptural pieces. The Gallery is in a high-ceilinged corner room in Frederiksberg.

Denmark is a nation known for its rich history of modern design.  Arne Jacobsen (1902-1971) is an iconic Danish architect and furniture designer. For six decades he made a significant contribution to architectural functionalism which was at the forefront of Danish architecture, and still enjoys worldwide success due in part to his simple, well-designed chairs.

Cecile Manz, Bodil Manz’s daughter, is also is one of Denmark’s senior designers.

To find out more about Danish design, visit Copenhagen’s Design Museum.

The Thorvaldsen Museum

There is so much to do in Copenhagen!  Christina recommends the Thorvaldsen Museum which lies at the centre of Copenhagen and is one of the country’s most beautiful buildings. A visit to the museum is like stepping into another world. A walk through the museum offers a veritable orgy of colours – brightly coloured walls, richly decorated ceilings and mosaic floors, all of which have Bertel Thorvaldsen’s marble and plaster sculptures as the natural centre of attention.

The David Collection – A small museum with a world class collection

The David Collection is an exclusive museum in the heart of Copenhagen. There is one of the most comprehensive collections of Islamic art in the Western world, a fine selection of European 18th-century art and a smaller, but exquisite, representation of Danish early modern painting, sculpture and ceramics.

The Scottish Gallery is celebrating Bodil Manz at 80 this August as part of our Festival exhibitions. To stay up to date with all exhibition news and events, sign up to our newsletter here.