Arken Museum of Modern Art
Encyclopedia
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
, the capital of Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
. The museum was conceived and created by Copenhagen County
Copenhagen County
Københavns Amt is a former county on the island of Zealand in eastern Denmark. It covered the municipalities in the metropolitan Copenhagen area, with the exception of Copenhagen and Frederiksberg. Effective January 1, 2007, the county was abolished and merged into Region Hovedstaden Københavns...
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Museum
The museum is located in the suburb-city IshøjIshøj
Ishøj Municipality is a municipality in Region Hovedstaden on the island of Zealand in eastern Denmark. The municipality covers 26 km², with a total population of 20,687 , many of whom are Pakistani, African, Arab, or Turkish immigrants...
, close to the bay of Køge
Køge
Køge Municipality is a municipality in Region Sjælland on the east coast of the island of Zealand approx. 40 km. southwest of Copenhagen. The municipality covers an area of 255 km² , and has a total population of 56,637...
(Køge bugt), 20 kilometers south of Copenhagen. ARKEN was designed by the Danish architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
Søren Robert Lund
Søren Robert Lund
Søren Robert Lund is a Danish architect with his studio located in Copenhagen, Denmark.Lund studied architecture at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen from 1982–1989....
, in a distinctive architectural form. It was opened on 15 March 1996 by her majesty of Denmark, Queen Margrethe
Margrethe II of Denmark
Margrethe II is the Queen regnant of the Kingdom of Denmark. In 1972 she became the first female monarch of Denmark since Margaret I, ruler of the Scandinavian countries in 1375-1412 during the Kalmar Union.-Early life:...
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The museum re-opened in January 2008 after major refurbishing, which included an expansion providing an additional 50% of gallery-space.
Collection
The ARKEN museum features modern works by Danish, Scandinavian and international painters. The museum also has amassed a collection of around 400 post-war contemporary art pieces. These include works by artist such as Damien HirstDamien Hirst
Damien Steven Hirst is an English artist, entrepreneur and art collector. He is the most prominent member of the group known as the Young British Artists , who dominated the art scene in Britain during the 1990s. He is internationally renowned, and is reportedly Britain's richest living artist,...
, Olafur Eliasson
Olafur Eliasson
Olafur Eliasson is a Danish-Icelandic artist known for sculptures and large-scale installation art employing elemental materials such as light, water, and air temperature to enhance the viewer’s experience. In 1995 he established Studio Olafur Eliasson in Berlin, a laboratory for spatial research...
, Sherin Neshat, Wolfgang Tillmans
Wolfgang Tillmans
Wolfgang Tillmans is a German Fine-art photographer and artist. His comprehensive and diverse body of work is distinguished by observation of his surroundings and an ongoing investigation of the photographic medium’s foundations. In 2000, Tillmans was the first photographer and also the first...
, and Danish / Norwegian duo Ingar Dragset and Michael Elmgreen
Elmgreen and Dragset
Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset are artist-collaborators since 1995 and their work explores the relationship between art, architecture and design....
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Each year ARKEN awards the 'ARKENs kunstpris' prize of 100.000 Danish kroner to a contemporary artist.