Celebrating Denmark at the National Gallery of Art
Activities Related to: Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg, 1783-1853
November 23, 2003-February 29, 2004

LECTURES

Opening Day Lecture Program:
Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg
and the Golden Age of Danish Painting
Philip Conisbee, senior curator of European paintings,
National Gallery of Art
Sunday, November 23, 2003
2:00-3:00 p.m.
East Building Auditorium

Four Great Danish Art Museums
Sundays at 2:00 p.m. starting January 4
East Building Auditorium

Directors of Denmark's finest art museums present illustrated lectures about their distinctive institutions and notable collections.

The Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek
Jan Stubbe Østergaard, curator
January 4

The Statens Museum for Kunst
by Allis Helleland, director
January 11

The Hirschsprung Collection
by Marianne Saabye, director
January 18

Thorvaldsens Museum
Philip Conisbee, senior curator of European paintings and curator of French paintings, National Gallery of Art, will present for Stig Miss, director
January 25

FILMS FROM DENMARK

New Cinema of Denmark
East Building Auditorium

Since the early 1990s, Danish film culture has enjoyed a period of exceptional artistic innovation and unprecedented international success. Young directors, including Lars von Trier, Thomas Vinterberg, Soren Kragh-Jacobsen, and Jesper Jargil, are largely responsible for the aesthetic resurgence of the Danish cinema in the last decade. This program includes both recent and representative examples of the phenomenon and three Washington film premieres.

Saturday, January 4, 4:30 p.m.
Breaking the Waves (1996)

Saturday, January 10, 2:30 p.m.
Inheritance (2003)

Sunday, January 11, 4:30 p.m.
Dogville (2003)

Saturday, January 17, 2:30 p.m.
New Scenes from America (2001)

Saturday, January 17, 4:00 p.m.
Giselle (1991)

Sunday, January 18, 4:30 p.m.
The Humiliated (1998)

Saturday, January 24, 1:00 p.m.
Truly Human (2001)

Sunday, January 25, 4:30 p.m.
Mifune (1999)

Saturday, January 31, 2:30 p.m.
Minor Mishaps (2002)

Sunday, February 1, 4:30 p.m.
Open Hearts (2002)

Danish Silent Films
East Building Auditorium

Between 1906 and 1917, Nordisk Films, the world's oldest production house, enjoyed a reputation as one of the most progressive film companies in the world, shooting the first feature films with experimental lighting and abstract camerawork. A selection of these early films demonstrates why this period is considered the first golden age of Danish cinema.

Saturday, February 7, 3:30 p.m.
The Right of Youth (1911)
Lady of Our Time (1912)
Temptations of a Great City (1910)

Sunday, February 8, 4:00 p.m
The Four Devils (1911)
The White Slave (1910)
The Great Circus Catastrophe (1912)

Saturday, February 14, 2:30 p.m.
Fra Piazza del Poppolo (1925)

Sunday, February 15, 4:30 p.m.
Once Upon a Time (Carl Th. Dreyer, 1922, new restoration)

GALLERY CONCERTS

Recital by Danish Cellist Erling Blöndal Bengtsson

Presented in honor of the exhibition
Sunday, November 23, 2003
With pianist Nina Kavtaradze
Works by Brahms, Debussy, Chopin, and Danish composer Herman D. Koppel

Songs by Donizetti, Fauré, and Danish Composers Carl Neilsen, P.E. Lange-Müller, Peter Heise, and Christoph Weyse

Presented in honor of the exhibition
Sunday, January 18, 2004
Jennifer Aylmer, soprano
Kenneth Merrill, pianist

Both concerts take place in the West Building, West Garden Court
Entrance at Sixth Street and Constitution Avenue NW
Admission starts at 6:00 p.m. (first-come, first-seated)
Concert begins at 7:00 p.m. For further information call (202) 842-6941.

GALLERY TALKS

Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg, 1783-1853
Philip Leonard, lecturer

December 4, 5, 6, and 9 at 1:00 p.m.
December 11 at noon
January 6, 8, 10, and 14 at noon
January 13 at 2:00 p.m.
February 19, 20, 21, 25, and 27 at noon

Meet at the East Building Art Information Desk
For additional dates and times, consult the Calendar of Events at the art information desks, visit www.nga.gov, or call (202) 842-6706. No reservations required.

CHILDREN'S FILM PROGRAM

Someone Like Hodder
Directed by Henrik Ruben Genz
(Denmark, 80 mins.)
Saturday, January 3, 10:30 a.m. (ages 8 and up)

The Washington premiere of this humorous and insightful live action film about a nine-year-old boy whose vivid imagination and honest heart touch the lives of his father and schoolmates. In Danish with English subtitles.

The Children's Film Program is made possible by the generous support of washingtonpost.com.

GROUP TOURS

Group tours, including foreign language tours, can be arranged in advance for adult groups of 20 or more by calling (202) 842-6247.

CATALOGUE

The exhibition catalogue, Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg, 1783-1853, is coauthored by Philip Conisbee, senior curator, European paintings, National Gallery of Art, Kasper Monrad, chief curator, Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, and Lene Bøgh Rønberg, assistant curator for research at the Statens Museum for Kunst. The lavishly illustrated volume includes an essay on Eckersberg's originality by Philip Conisbee, an examination of Eckersberg in the tradition of open-air painting by Monrad, and a biography by Rønberg, who also wrote the catalogue entries. Published by the National Gallery of Art, the softcover catalogue is available for $25 from the Gallery's Web site at www.nga.gov, in the Gallery Shops, or by phone at (202) 842-6002 or (800) 697-9350 (192 pages, 60 color, 36 black-and-white illustrations).

WEB SITE

Visit www.nga.gov/exhibitions/eckersberginfo.htm. The National Gallery of Art's award-winning Web site had more than 10,000,000 visitors last year.

General Information

The National Gallery of Art and its Sculpture Garden are at all times free to the public. They are located on the National Mall between 3rd and 9th Streets at Constitution Avenue NW, and are open Monday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Sunday from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. The Gallery is closed on December 25 and January 1. For information call (202) 737-4215 or the Telecommunications Device for the Deaf (TDD) at (202) 842-6176, or visit the Gallery's Web site at www.nga.gov.

Visitors will be asked to present all carried items for inspection upon entering the East and West Buildings. Checkrooms are free of charge and located at each entrance. Luggage and other oversized bags must be presented at the 4th Street entrances to the East or West Building to permit x-ray screening and must be deposited in the checkrooms at those entrances. For the safety of visitors and the works of art, nothing may be carried into the Gallery on a visitor's back. Any bag or other items that cannot be carried reasonably and safely in some other manner must be left in the checkrooms. Items larger than 17 x 26 inches cannot be accepted by the Gallery or its checkrooms.

For additional press information please call or send inquiries to:

Press Office
National Gallery of Art
2000B South Club Drive
Landover, MD 20785
phone: (202) 842-6353 e-mail: pressinfo@nga.gov

Deborah Ziska
Chief of Press and Public Information
(202) 842-6353
ds-ziska@nga.gov

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