Scan Magazine – August 2018

70 | Issue 115 | August 2018

Established in 2005, Nuuk Art Museum provides a 600-square-metre venue for

Greenlandic art to be interacted with by Greenlanders and shared with the world.

“There hasn’t really been a tradition of curated art and art history in Greenland but

there are now two art museums here. So we’re seeing the beginning of a debate

about what Greenlandic art is,” says the museum’s director Nivi Christensen. “It’s

very exciting to be able to help shed light on Greenland’s art and artists.”

By Louise Older Steffensen | Photos: Nuuk Kunstmuseum

The private collection of Svend and
Helene Junge, who founded Nuuk Art
Museum, forms the basis of the muse-
um’s permanent exhibition. Assembled
over a lifetime, the original collection
is extensive and eclectic, ranging from
paintings to figurines — something which
reflects the different gazes and variety
of artistic endeavour in Greenland over
time. “Painting here, for example, was
a European pursuit until very recently,”
Christensen points out. “Handicraft was
much more common — beautifully deco-
rated practical objects made using com-
mon Greenlandic materials like pelts,
bone and stones. And interestingly, the
popular tupilak, now seen as a national
symbol, only really began being made to
appeal to Europeans.”

Art as an industry came with the
Scandinavians in the 19th century, when
photos, rather than paintings, were al-

ready commonplace for documenting ‘ex-

otic’ places. Although ‘Greenland paint-

ers’ did take off as a trend in Denmark,

they tended to focus on large-scale, fan-

tastical landscapes, made for a Danish

audience. “One of the most fascinating

things we show here is the differences in

how we look at the world,” Christensen

explains. “Outside views tend to look at

the whole, especially grand landscapes.

The Greenlandic gaze tends to focus on

little details and patterns.”

Nuuk’s graphics workshop opened in

1975 and led to the first generation of

home-grown Greenlandic artists. Nat-

urally, they specialised in graphics and

prints. The workshop is now the National

Art School of Greenland, which trains five

budding artists every year. The museum

itself has started an artist-in-residence

programme and encourages closer

artist-and-visitor interaction and interest

The art of Greenland

from the next generation through talks,

events and school class visits.

While artists continue to typically study

in Denmark, as Christensen herself did,

the country’s first art historian is seeing

a massive change and increase in in-

terest from both locals and the interna-

tional community alike. From August to

November, the museum will be exhibit-

ing The Weather Diaries, a collaboration

between Iceland, the Faroe Islands and

Greenland, by artists Nina Gorfer and

Sarah Cooper. Their renaissance-like

photo-portrait series, which examines

the intersection between fashion, cli-

mate, and heritage and identity in the

West Nordic countries, is set to be the

first of many large and international-

ly-acclaimed exhibitions at the museum.

Web: http://www.nuukkunstmuseum.com

Facebook: nuukkunstmuseum

Instagram: @nuukartmuseum

Scan Magazine | Special Theme | A Spotlight on Greenland

Left: The Fifth Daughters, 2014, Cooper & Gorfer – The Weather Diaries, Bibi Chemnitz. Middle: Ena With Eyes Shut, 2014, Cooper & Gorfer – The Weather Diaries, Nikolaj

Kristensen. Top right: The museum. Photo: Visit Greenland. Below right: Sermitsiaq, 2000, Anne-Birthe Hovem (1951-2012).

Unknown, J.E.C. Rasmussen (1841-1893).