FEBRUARY 3 – MAY 23 2027

VILHELM HAMMERSHØI

WITH THE FUTURE AS HORIZON

Vilhelm Hammershøi is today considered one of Denmark’s truly great artists. In spring 2027, Ordrupgaard opens its doors to a major exhibition in which Hammershøi’s beloved works come face to face with works by, among others, the Dutch artist Piet Mondrian. The exhibition asks whether we discover something new in Hammershøi’s work when we view it through the lens of the modern world.

The exhibition will feature more than 70 works from Denmark and abroad, encompassing Hammershøi’s well-known subjects: interiors, portraits and landscapes. With a focus on the phenomena and visual language of the works, the exhibition explores how Hammershøi’s treatment of light, line and repetition anticipates the modern art of the twentieth century.

TOWARDS MODERNITY

Hammershøi stands apart as a solitary figure on the Danish art scene at a time defined by rupture and renewal on the one hand, and nostalgic longing on the other. When we look at his works, we are rarely in any doubt that it is his hand behind them. We recognise the undisturbed depictions of a sitting room, a landscape, a building, a figure seen from behind. In Hammershøi’s works, silence reverberates, rendered in a refined palette of predominantly grey, black and white tones. This apparent harmony connects his work to the Golden Age painters’ idyllic portrayals of everyday life — yet in Hammershøi, that harmonious image is fractured by an underlying ambivalence:

We look at a work and feel both at home and out of place at once. The open rooms do not invite us in; they ask us to observe from a distance. Hammershøi’s works carry a complexity that points towards the horizons of the future and the twentieth century, rather than back into history.

“…I am not blind to the fact that there is something wrong in favouring the old at the expense of the new — the good new, mind you. Modern people ought to live in modern, contemporary homes. And it is far better to follow a modern taste than to imitate the old.”

— Vilhelm Hammershøi, 1909