Louisiana

On Saturday I decided to go to the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art which is about 30-40 minutes out of Copenhagen in a small seaside village called Humlebæk. I had seen all around town posters advertising an exhibition of works by Picasso called Picasso: Fred & Frihed (Peace and Freedom). I figured it's not everyday you get to see works by Picasso. The museum was also listed in my Wallpaper guide book as a cool place to visit.

The Picasso exhibition itself was rather dull. It certainly showcased some of the artistic style he was famous for, but the focus was on his political artworks so the range was limited. One thing I did learn was that the now widespread image of the Dove of Peace was originally drawn by him in the 40s and 50s.

The other main drawcard they had were some pieces by an artist called Walton Ford. He does watercolour paintings of birds and animals, but I assure you these are no whimsical, washed out yawnfests. They were bright, vibrant and incredibly detailed. They were also life-sized based on the subject of the painting. For example, one was of a Rhino that was painted to scale (read: BIG). Apparently, each painting takes five years to complete. While I couldn't take photos due to ever-vigilant security people, thanks to Google Image Search I can show you some examples here!

The museum also has its own collection of over 3500 pieces of modern art from the last 100 years or so. I saw the Chairman Mao print as designed by Andy Warhol (so cool!) as well as the famous Roy Lichtenstein image of the blonde-haired woman, among many others.

The one piece that really caught my attention was the most amazing painting of the Grand Canyon I  have ever seen. It took up nearly a whole wall and was made up of a series of about 60 smaller canvasses. Again, thanks to Google, I can show it to you here. It really showcases the epic scale of the Canyon and is painted in such vibrant, lively colours of orange and red. It is absolutely mind-boggling in terms of the sheer size of the thing and the skill that went into it.

As well as the above, there is also a really cool sculpture garden that overlooks the sea. I snapped the image below of what appears to be E.T. with reproductive abilities.

And this rather cool sculpture as well. Both of these are made of Bronze. I took photos of some other sculptures but I thought these two were the pick of the bunch.

The view from the sculpture garden was absolutely amazing, you could see right up the coast to the nearby town of Helsingør as well as across the Øresund to southern Sweden. Being winter the sea was a sheet of ice out to about 1-2kms off shore.

I finished off my day here with a quick explore around the village itself. I found some really quaint cottages overlooking the sea in what can only be described as prime real estate. I can imagine that in summer when the days are long and warm that living here would be like a little slice of paradise.

On that picturesque note, I bring this post to a close.