Being a New Yorker I have been fortunate to enjoy close by innumerable museums with curated exhibits covering a vast array of subjects including cultural, historical, scientific and more. in addition each journey I have taken has included stops at local museums which have provided not only education about the country/city/etc but also enjoyment – you are never sure just what you are going to see. Museums are not just stuffy edifices filled with trinkets – if you watch and listen carefully, you can cull great stories.
I was already intrigued when I learned the name of the museum we were to visit in Copenhagen, the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. There is no area in Copenhagen, or Denmark or Scandinavia is general that has this name, and you could never guess where it comes from. Let me provide a bit of history to explain.
Knud Jensen was a multimillionaire came from a family that ran a cheese wholesale company. After 12 years at the helm, he sold the company and set out to dedicate his life and fortune in the support of art. His vision was to create a place that was not pretentious, but rather a venue of wonder and enrichment:
The more opportunities for experience that the program offers, the more Louisiana lives up to its idea – to be a ‘musical meeting place’ and a milieu that is engaged in contemporary life. – Knud Jensen
He purchased a villa, which was surrounded by a large park offering gorgeous views of the Oresund Strait that runs between Denmark and Sweden. The estate had belonged to a Danish noble named Alexander Brun, who was an office and Master of the Royal Hunt. Through his life, he had three wives, who incidentally were all named Louise so he named his estate “Louisiana.” When Jensen purchased it, he decided to keep the name. This is the villa, which is now only a small part of the entire museum:
Nest week I will take you through some of the more “quirky” exhibits and you will understand the title of these two posts.
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Interesting! PK