COPENHAGEN.- In August, SMK launches the exhibition Against All Odds – Historical Women and New Algorithms, which unfolds the stories of twenty-four Nordic women artists who achieved great success in the years 1870–1910, but have since more or less disappeared from history. The exhibition explores how we can reinscribe women artists in art history and whether new technology can be used to write history in completely new ways.

The woodcut “Evening” was created by the Danish artist Henriette Hahn-Brinkmann (1862–1934). Depicting fellow artist Niels Hansen Jacobsen, it is a rare example of a friendship portrait (known as ‘Freundschaftsbilder’) where a woman portrays a man. Like most women of her time, Hahn-Brinkmann faced great difficulty in gaining access to artistic education; yet she nevertheless achieved great success as an artist. She settled in Hamburg and went on to participate in numerous exhibitions – including the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1900, where she received a silver medal, one of several prestigious accolades bestowed upon her.

After her death, she was quickly forgotten and, like many other prominent women artists from the late 1800s, was soon written out of art history. But what happened? And how might these artists be restored to a place in art history?

‘She has talent … unfortunately’ [1]

SMK’s exhibition Against All Odds – Historical Women and New Algorithms features twenty-four Nordic women artists from the period 1870 to 1910. They all had one thing in common: they left their Nordic home countries to pursue their artistic ambitions abroad in places such as Germany, Italy, France and Greece. There, they met other women in the same situation, forming networks that cut across national borders.

The international networks became a crucial source of support for them in the face of a lack of recognition from institutions in their homelands – a cosmopolitan alternative to the national scenes at a time when women had limited opportunities. Access to education and work was limited, the Nordic art academies were reserved for men and exhibition opportunities were scarce.

Women’s struggle for basic and legal rights gained a prominent place in the public eye. However, the openness, the free and frank debate and the international outlook of the time soon became mixed with conservatism and misogyny. From around 1900, disdain for the women’s movement grew throughout the Western world and also embedded itself in the art scene. The association between the notion of the ‘new woman’ and the idea of a general slide into moral dissolution also took hold in the Nordic countries. The research underpinning the exhibition shows that women were systematically written out of history throughout the early twentieth century due to the resistance towards women’s liberation. Thus, the twenty-four artists featured in the exhibition achieved success in their own time against all odds.

‘In recent years, art museums around the world have launched exhibitions that shed light on unknown and forgotten women artists. But this is the first time the story of the women who travelled out into the world is told through a comprehensive presentation of Nordic art from the period. With this exhibition, we are actively rethinking their place in history. Instead of trying to reinscribe them into the history that erased them, we are asking whether we can imagine completely different ways of writing history. In the exhibition, we explore, among other things, how new technology can be used to expand and challenge our ways of understanding, remembering, archiving and canonising things,’ says Emilie Boe Bierlich, the main curator of the exhibition.

Artificial intelligence and history writing

The exhibition presents two digital installations based on generative technologies. The installations use the artworks featured in the exhibition, the women’s biographies, surviving archival material and many years of research as data sets to tell the collective story of the women.

One of the greatest digital artists of our time, Itzel Yard (b. 1990), also known as Ix Shells, has developed a new work specifically for the exhibition: a generative, immersive installation based on data about the historical women artists – their journeys, their relationships as well as colours and details from their works. This data is transformed into abstract, geometric shapes that slowly move across the walls enclosing the audience. In parts of the installation, a sensor registers the audience’s movements and reflects them in the artwork’s visualisations of the historical women artists’ journeys. With this work, Ix Shells strives to unite the historical with the digital in a physical, ambient and sensory experience.

The exhibition also offers the opportunity to have a conversation with a digital avatar of the renowned sculptor Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen (1863-1945). This is facilitated by a chatbot developed in collaboration with the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). Unlike ChatGPT, which generates responses based on vast amounts of data, this chatbot is specially trained on a curated data set consisting of historical sources such as letters, diaries and recent research on Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen’s life and work. The chatbot is being tested for the first time ever at SMK, exploring its potential as a tool for presenting and creating an overview of an extensive body of archival material and finding new ways into it.

‘In light of the revolutionary potential of AI technology, it is interesting to investigate how we can apply algorithmic cultures to an art historical context in order to expand and challenge our collective experiences. The exhibition is a snapshot of how we work with and experience artificial intelligence and algorithms in the art world right now. Every generation creates and rewrites history. It’s the way we do it that changes,’ says Emilie Boe Bierlich.

Concurrently with the exhibition at SMK, the Hirschsprung Collection presents the exhibition Women Visualising the Modern. Danish Art 1880-1910, which highlights the contributions made by Danish women artists to the visual arts of the period. The exhibition will be on display from 28 August 2024 to 12 January 2025.

Note [1]: The statement is taken from an anecdote recounted in the painter Georg Pauli’s book Opponenterne (The Opponents) from 1927. Here, he recollects taking a walk through the streets of Paris in the company of fellow artist Robert Thegerström when the latter exclaimed: ‘– Oh, look, here comes Hanna Hirsch, said my friend. – Who is that? I asked. – Don’t you know Hanna Hirsch? She’s a painter, I know. She has talent – unfortunately, Bob added.’