National Gallery of Denmark Celebrates 200th Anniversary of Nicolai Abildgaard's Death

　　COPENHAGEN.- Armed with gods, mythological creatures, coarse satire and a modern social outlook, he made his art a mouthpiece for reform in a time of unrest under absolute monarchy, social injustice and stifled freedom of expression. Despite his international orientation and multifaceted, powerful life's work, Abildgaard has long stood in the shadow of his student C.W Eckersberg and the more popular and mild-mannered Golden Age painters who followed. With a solid 150 works, this exhibition at the National Gallery of Denmark, marking the 200th anniversary of Abildgaard’s death is the first major presentation of Abildgaard in Denmark since 1916.

　　The exhibition at the National gallery of Denamrk manages to encapsulate both the breadth and the highlights of Abildgaard’s work. With an emphasis on painting, the exhibition also incorporates drawings, graphics, and examples of his furniture production in one collective presentation for the first time. A recurring motif through the exhibition is Abildgaard’s relationship to tradition and his constant attempt to break free of it in order to create a distinct artistic identity. His work is rooted in neoclassicism, and Abildgaard himself was exceptionally well-versed in the literary classics, which exerted a high degree of influence on his motifs.. In composition, colour, and choice of motif, Abildgaard’s works are far from harmony and quiet dignity. Here one finds instead unrest, spectacle, pain and other intense emotions. The human body, in particular – which is the leitmotif throughout his entire work – became Abildgaard’s preferred form for the expression of the grotesque, the violent, and the terrifying. As with his assiduous use of mythological and historical scenes, Abildgaard used the body as a symbol for notions such as power, pain, injustice and upheaval. This move also revealed an ambition to activate the viewer and insist on emotive response, opinion, and awareness of the surrounding society.

　　With 150 works, this exhibition embraces Abildgaard’s life work from his early years through to his late productions. The exhibition is as such a retrospective, but avoids typical chronological layout. The many works are instead presented in thematic clusters that illustrate Abildgaard’s principle themes.

（来源：Artdaily，点击参看译文）