COPENHAGEN, DENMARK.- Statens Museum for Kunst presents L.A. Ring. On the Edge of the World, on view through January 7, 2007. L.A. Ring (1854-1933) was a completely unique figure within Danish art from the decades surrounding the birth of the 20th century. Now, Statens Museum for Kunst presents a major retrospective exhibition about the uncompromising artist whose works now stand as deeply original testaments to a Denmark on the threshold of modernity; testaments that retain their impact on contemporary audiences. Comprising a total of 80 paintings supplemented by a selection of ceramic works, the exhibition spans Ring's entire body of work. His key masterpieces are shown alongside a range of rarely seen works from private collections.
Revolutionary dreamer and poetic painter of the soul - The son of a carpenter, L.A. Ring grew up in very modest conditions in the village of Ring in the south of Zealand. His humble origins sparked a life-long interest in political and social matters. Religious faith was abandoned at an early stage, displaced by a deeply felt indignation caused by the social and economic injustices he witnessed. Several of Ring's early works are overtly political in nature, displaying a clear sympathy for the workers' struggles, and anecdotes would have us believe that the young Ring would carry a loaded gun around the streets of Copenhagen, impatiently awaiting the revolution. It never came, and the disappointed Ring turned his attention to life in the country. The landscapes around him and the simple, hard-working life among the rural population now became his favourite motifs.
But the world is never just what it seems in Ring's works. The odd angles, strange croppings and the artist's superb ability to infuse his images with his changing states of mind raise these paintings above mere down-to-earth realism. The introspective, Symbolist gaze is turned outwards to meet the physical world, imbuing it with the moods experienced by the sensitive artist.
On the edge- L.A. Ring's paintings are characterised by a sense of standing between two worlds. They often depict human beings in zones of transit: Standing by a door leading to a garden, by a window, or by a railway crossing. In a similar fashion, the exhibition paints a picture of a complex artist who had one foot in the old world and one in the new as he faced the drastic changes of his day. An artist to whom the act of painting served as an outlet for the mental restlessness and spiritual unrest that characterised this era where the conditions of life were changed forever.
In one sense his life's work constitutes a drawn-out self-portrait even as it also depicts a Denmark which grows out of the well-ordered world image of the Golden Age of Danish painting to become part of modern Europe. At the same time Ring's bold idiom and interest in universal, existential issues are relevant far beyond his own day. The exhibition utilises a scenographically challenging and varied hanging to present Ring's both personal and universal struggles with human existence throughout its different phases: The revolutionary dreams of youth, disappointment and depression, the nomadic restlessness, love, the clarity and insights of old age and the final wait for death. This makes L.A. Ring an artist that has something to offer to people of all ages and at all times.
