By its very nature – art must be seen! At the same time, it’s normal for any museum to possess a number of art works that are collecting dust in the storage room most of the time. However, whenever those works lack a clear and unequivocal relationship with the main purpose of the respective collection, it should be contemplated if they may be of more use in another context. At the Art Museums of Skagen we do have such pieces.

Our autumn exhibition will give the audience a chance to see works that we have decided to separate a number of artworks from our inventory. They are certainly not inferior, but we think they should find a more suitable permanent home. In some cases they will be transferred to another museum under state supervision, in other cases they could be returned to the original owner who, with the best of intentions, at some point donated the work. The process of this separation is obviously conducted in strict accordance with the museum legislation, and in mutual understanding with the official supervisory authority.

Before we say goodbye to these pieces of art, we want to give our own visitors the opportunity to view them. We invite you to see for yourself that the paintings are indeed well-worth a thorough inspection, but also to share our assessment that they are distant from the core business of the Art Museums of Skagen.

This story primarily deals with works from the second half of the 20th century, predominantly produced by Danish painters. We are showing works by – inter alia – Knud Agger, Poul Anker Bech, Karl Bovin, Frede Christoffersen, Sven Danelund, Poul Ekelund, Sven Dalsgaard, Nicolai Hammer, Valdemar Secher, Poul Winther, Gerda Thune Andersen, Aage Bernhard Frederiksen and Peter Tatarnikov.

The exhibition will explain how the works have become part of the Skagen Art Museum’s collection and why they actually belong somewhere else.