New ceramics in dialogue with JF Willumsen

Five contemporary artists have entered into dialogue with JF Willumsen and the artist's ceramic heritage.

The five interesting visual artists, Toni Larsen, Tine Hecht-Pedersen, Knud Odde, Jens Bohr og Annette Brix, whose new ceramic works are shown at the exhibition, acknowledge JF Willumsen's radical renewal of ceramics in the 1890s. In a unique way, the five artists have created works that show their personal exploration of the expressive possibilities of ceramics and their reflection on JF Willumsen as an artist. Their works are shown in interaction with selected parts of the collection at JF Willumsen's Museum, but also in interaction with, among others, the "Family Vase", which is considered a major work in Danish art history. The work is on loan from Designmuseum Danmark. In addition, the exhibition shows a selection of porcelain vases created under JF Willumsen's artistic direction at Bing & Grøndahl, and which were shown at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1900. The vases are made available by the Danish Ceramics Museum - Grimmerhus.

The exhibition has been created in collaboration with the Danish Ceramics Museum – Grimmerhus, and will subsequently travel to Grimmerhus in Middelfart with an opening there from March 4 to June 2, 2013. For the exhibition at Grimmerhus, JF Willumsens Museum will make a selection of JF Willumsens ceramic works available.
In the 1890s, JF Willumsen helped to renew the ceramic arts and not least sculpture through his radical approach to the vase as a form, and to the glaze as a material. He worked for a 10-year period in his own self-built ceramic workshops, as well as at the porcelain factory Bing & Grøndahl as artistic director in the period 1897-1900.