Exhibition
HAMMERSHøI AND DREYER
CCCB
25.01.07 – 01.05.07
INDEX
1.- Exhibition credits 2
2.- Presentation 3
3.- Exhibition texts 5
4.- List of works on show 9
5.- Catalogue 15
6.- Accompanying activities 17
7.- Biographies of Hammershøi and Dreyer 19
8.- Curators’ CVs 22
9.- The architecture project for the exhibition 23
10.- General information 24
1.- EXHIBITION CREDITS
“Hammershøi and Dreyer” is a co-production by Ordrupgaard (Copenhagen) and the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB). The exhibition ran at Ordrupgaard from 1 September 2006 and 7 January 2007, and will now go on show at the CCCB between 25 January and 1 May 2007.
Curators
Anne-Birgitte Fonsmark, Annette Rosenvold Hvidt, Casper Tybjerg and Jordi Balló
Design and direction of the exhibition assembly and graphics
RCR Aranda Pigem Vilalta Arquitectes
With the collaboration of Ventura-Llimona Taller d’arquitectura
Coordination and documentation
Ordrupgaard
Miquel Nogués, Exhibitions Service of the CCCB
Lighting and special montages
Artecluminotecnia M. Ginés, I. Dominguez, M. Fuentes, J. Piera
and the CCCB’s Production and Assembly Unit
Graphic design of publicity
Lali Almonacid
Assembly of audiovisual installations
Audiovisuals Department of the CCCB
Exhibition assembly
Nix Profusta SL
Registration and installation of original works
Registration and Conservation Unit of the CCCB and M. Carme Balliu
Exhibition co-produced by
CCCB and Ordrupgaard
With the backing of the
Department of Culture and Media of the Generalitat de Catalunya Catalan Autonomous Government
Sponsored by
La Vanguardia
With the collaboration of
+Queen Isabel of Denmark Foundation
Novo Nordisk
Vestas
2.- PRESENTATION
The CCCB presents the exhibition Hammershøi and Dreyer, bringing together for the first time the bodies of work of the two most universal Danish artists of all time: the painter Vilhelm Hammershøi (Copenhagen, 1864–1916) and the filmmaker Carl Theodor Dreyer (Copenhagen, 1889–1968). The show is a co-production of the CCCB and Copenhagen’s Ordrupgaard, where it will run until 7 January 2007. It can be visited at the CCCB from 25 January to 1 May 2007.
This exhibition is the first time Hammershøi’s work has been shown in Spain, represented here by 36 essential pieces. To date, anthological shows of the Danish painter have only been presented in Paris, New York and Hamburg.
The artists
Vilhelm Hammershøi (Copenhagen, 1864 – 1916) was an artist who created his own personal style, independent of the trends of the time. His work is confined to a few pictorial themes: interiors of the places where he lived; a solitary woman, normally with her back turned to us, in a domestic setting; portraits of family and friends; monumental buildings in Copenhagen and London, and landscapes of the Danish island of Sealand. These motifs appear repeatedly in his paintings, creating an atmosphere of mystery with no apparent action, and this immobility is one of the keys to the fascination it exerts. Hammershøi’s range of colours is dominated by greys which, in his hand, acquire a strange depth. He was one of the painters who best knew how to express the tempo of solitude and the corporeal nature of light.
Carl Theodor Dreyer (Copenhagen, 1889 – 1968) directed films that refine the expressivity of light and shadow, and are characterized by an indefatigable quest for spiritual truths and beauty. In the course of 40 years, he filmed both silent and speaking films, including The President (Præsidenten, 1918), Michael (Mikaël, 1924), Master of the House (Du Skal Ære Din Hustru, 1925), The Passion of Joan of Arc (La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc, 1927), Vampyr (1932) and Day of Wrath (Vredens Dag, 1943). In 1955, Dreyer won first prize in the Venice Film Festival with the film The Word (Ordet). His last film, Gertrud (1964), was highly controversial, but was awarded the Danish Bodil Prize for the Best Film of the Year. Today it is considered one of the ten best films in the history of the cinema.
The analogies
The exhibition presented by the CCCB aims firstly to publicize two very well known creators for the history of painting and film, though they are little known beyond Danish borders. The Barcelona show is only the fourth international exhibition to be devoted to Hammershøi. Dreyer’s films are screened very occasionally, and this is one of the first times they have been presented in an exhibition.
The second challenge of this project is to show the strong visual and creative relations between the artists, and in their methods, their intimate understanding of art and their aesthetic similarities.
Hammershøi and Dreyer have many thematic and formal analogies:
- They share the conviction that the greatest dramatic intensity is found in interiors (of a house, an image, a face).
- Their treatment of the human figure, particularly the female form: the enigmatic women with their backs to us in domestic interiors refer to the contemplation and ecstasy of the characters and their personal dramas, and even contain the hint of death.
- The dominance of light in the scene is impeccable in both artists. Hammershøi knew how to paint it, while Dreyer gave it cadence.
- Exteriors. First, there are the landscapes, charged with a very special atmosphere. Then there are the exteriors perceived through sculptural figures, windows and doors closed on the interiors represented.
The exhibition
As pointed out by the exhibition curators, Anne-Birgitte Fonsmark, Annette Rosenvold Hvidt, Casper Tybjerg and Jordi Balló, Dreyer was probably “Hammershøi’s best and maybe his only true heir”. However, the challenge of the exhibition is not just to highlight the analogies between the painter and the filmmaker, but also to establish the explicit link between the bodies of work of the authors in a two-way relationship. The exhibition will help us to understand some of the creative forms of the filmmaker by means of a knowledge of the painter’s work, and to better understand the essence of the painter in the light of the films by Dreyer that follow.
In order to achieve this aim, great care has been taken in the way the work of these two creators is shown to the public. This is why the exhibition design has been entrusted to the architecture practice RCR Aranda Pigem Vilalta Arquitectes, with the collaboration of Ventura-Llimona.
The exhibition comprises 36 works by Hammershøi and 12 audiovisuals showing excerpts from Dreyer’s films. The exhibition also presents photographs and documents on loan from the two artists’ personal archives, highlighting the process of reflection and work involved in their creations.
The show begins with Dreyer, underlining the importance of light in his films. It continues with Hammershøi’s paintings, presented one by one to highlight the intimate relationship between the spectator and the work and to convey the central ideas of his painting: austerity, sobriety, silence and slowness.
Dreyer remains present throughout the sector devoted to the works of Hammershøi, turning a visit to the exhibition into a sensorial experience in which the spectator can admire Hammershøi’s works in the light of Dreyer.
3.- EXHIBITION TEXTS
INTRODUCTION
Poul Vad, the art historian and arguably the greatest expert on the paintings of Vilhelm Hammershøi, highlighted the linking thread connecting two of the most important Danish artists of all time: “we could say that the film director Carl Theodor Dreyer was the most important and perhaps the only true heir to the painter Hammershøi …” The conceptual core of the exhibition centres on the existence of two independent stylistic worlds in two different artistic media, which nevertheless share a similar attitude to dramatic intensity, austerity, light and silence.
Panels from the documental section of the show (a selection)
Hammershøi’s sister Anna frequently modelled for him in his early works. The photograph shows Anna seated at the piano. In front of her is Hammershøi’s first canvas, Portrait of a Young Girl (Portræt af en ung pige), dated 1885, which she posed for. The painting caused a sensation when it was first shown, as its composition and range of colours made it stand out from the other works in the exhibition. Photograph by Valdemar Schønheyder Møller, undated.
Ida and Vilhelm Hammershøi photographed in the living room of their house at 30 Strandgade, in the Christianshavn district, around 1903. Hammershøi lived and worked at 30 Strandgade between 1898 and 1909, and painted many interiors of the house (over 60 paintings according to the expert Poul Vad).
Pages from the photograph album which Ida and Vilhelm Hammershøi put together in 1913 for their friend Leonard Borwick to show him their neighbourhood and the decor of their new home at 25 Strandgade. The apartment was in the former building of the Asian Company – now the headquarters of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs–, which fascinated Hammershøi and was the central motif in a number of his paintings.
Hammershøi and Dreyer were born 25 years apart. They probably never met or knew each other personally. However, the period 1916 to 1918 provides us with an essential connection between both artists.
The full breadth of Hammershøi’s work was revealed following the major commemorative exhibition held at Kunstforeningen (now Gl Strand) in 1916, shortly after his death. This was before Dreyer made his first film, The President (Præsidenten) in 1918. Dreyer said that the film was inspired by his discovery of Hammershøi’s work.
No photographs have been found of the 1916 commemorative exhibition at Kunstforeningen, but the layout was probably like this photograph of the 1896 exhibition of Hammershøi’s works in Charlottenborg.
Two interiors by Hammershøi which may have inspired Dreyer’s sets for The President (Præsidenten). Both paintings are on display in this exhibition.
While he was working for Nordisk, Dreyer made his directorial debut with The President (Præsidenten), which premiered in 1919. Still photo showing the main character in his living room, exactly as Dreyer had positioned him to reflect his “upright, respectable and dull personality”.
Dreyer is pictured on the right during the filming of Michael (Mikäel) in Berlin in 1924. Based on a novel by Herman Bang, the film is considered by many to be Dreyer’s first masterpiece.
Still photo of the actresses Mathilde Nielsen and Karin Nellemose in Dreyer’s Master of the House (Du skal ære din hustru), 1925.
Dreyer carried out extensive research to ensure the different settings in the film were as authentic as possible. The interior sets for Master of the House were built from four semi-moveable partitions to give the appearance of a real two-roomed house.
Maria Falconetti as Joan of Arc in Dreyer’s film The Passion of Joan of Arc (La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc), 1927.
Still photos from Vampyr.
Dreyer imbued his film with a mysterious dreamlike atmosphere by filming the powerful sunlight through a fine layer of gauze to create a veiled effect.
In 1942 Dreyer returned to film-making after a 10-year break.
In 1943 he made Day of Wrath (Vredens Dag) for Palladium A/S.
This photograph shows him writing in the 1940s.
Still photos from the film Day of Wrath (Vredens Dag), 1943. The actors are Lisbeth Movin and Preben Lerdorff Rye.
Between 1946 and 1954 Dreyer was commissioned to direct a series of short films by the State Film Committee. Here are a number of still photos from one of the most interesting and best known, They Caught the Ferry (De Naaede Faergen), 1948.
Still photo from The Word (Ordet), 1954.
Dreyer directs Nina Pens Rode and Bendt Rothe during the filming of Gertrud in 1964.
Gertrud was Dreyer’s last film and many people think that the way he tried to create “real images” reveals Hammershøi’s influence.
Portrait of Dreyer around 1964. The director is pictured seated at home with Sten Rein’s book Hjalmar Söderberg’s Gertrud (Hjalmar Söderbergs Gertrud), which was a clear source of inspiration for his film of the same name.
The proposed film Jesus of Nazareth was an obsession of Dreyer’s for 40 years. Throughout his life, he worked and spent much of his time on the project, as can be seen in the hundreds of preparatory documents preserved in the Danish Film Institute archives. Here are some drawings by Julius Jotham-Rothschild with the preparatory models.
A photograph from Dreyer’s private archive taken during his summer holidays in the western region of Jutland.
The photograph is an example of Dreyer’s interest in interiors and lighting effects, in clear harmony with the interiors and the treatment of light in Hammershøi’s paintings.
4.- LIST OF WORKS ON SHOW
12 audiovisual montages about the filmography of Carl Theodor Dreyer
Gertrud, 1964
Palladium
Excerpt 4.30 min.
Gertrud, 1964
Palladium
Excerpt 3.15 min.
The Word (Ordet), 1954
Palladium
Excerpt 11 min.
The Word (Ordet), 1954
Palladium
Excerpt 2.30 min.
Day of Wrath (Vredens Dag), 1943
Palladium
Excerpt 2.11 min.
Day of Wrath (Vredens Dag), 1943
Palladium
Excerpt 1.30 min.
Vampyr, 1932
Carl Th. Dreyer Filmproduktion Paris-Berlin / DFI
Excerpt 3.38 min.
Vampyr, 1932
Carl Th. Dreyer Filmproduktion Paris-Berlin / DFI
Excerpt 3.36 min.
Master of the House (Du Skal Ære Din Hustru), 1925
Palladium
Excerpt 4.20 min.
Michael (Mikaël), 1924
UFA / DFI- Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung
Excerpt 6.10 min.
Leaves from Satan's Book (Blade af Satans Bog), 1919
Nordisk Films Kompagni
Excerpt 3.46 min.
The President (Præsidenten), 1918
Nordisk Films Kompagni
Excerpt 3 min.
Works by Vilhelm Hammershøi
Vilhelm Hammershøi
Woman Reading (Strandgade 30)
1908
Oil on canvas
Kunstmuseet Brundlund Slot, Aabenraa, Denmark
Vilhelm Hammershøi
Old Woman. Seated
1886
Oil on canvas
The Hirschsprung Collection, Copenhagen
Vilhelm Hammershøi
Interior with Young Girl Sweeping
1899
Oil on canvas