The exhibition Needle & thread – Handicraft in art presents a large number of artists who, across both time and place, subject and medium, work at the crossroads between art and handiwork. Based on Danish art history from the 1750s to the present day, the exhibition delves into the rich traditions and artistic innovations of handwork. The comprehensive exhibition highlights the importance of the working hands in the visual arts at a time when more and more people are turning to handwork in the form of knitting, crocheting and embroidery.   

Throughout the centuries, needlework has been a central part of women’s household work, just as it has also been a significant source of income for commoner men and women alike. In step with industrialization, clothing factories such as Brandts Klædefabrik are popping up all over Denmark. It is here in the old clothing factory complex that Art Museum Brandts is today housed.

Handicraft also leaves its mark in the visual arts. Here we find accounts of care work and factory work, leisure pursuits, gendered stereotypes and virtuous ideals of women. But artistic expression and rebellion also accompany the handicraft. These are the threads that the exhibition picks up: From historical works that depict needle-working men and women from different strata of society, to image weavers, who over decades have transformed yarn into original works of art, and not least to contemporary art, which today with renewed spirit updates the handiwork. 

At the exhibition you can experience works by: Anna Ancher, Michael Ancher, Bank og Rau, Wilhelm Bendz, Isabel Berglund, Inge Bjørn, Anders Bonnesen, Ragna Braase, Adam Christensen, Mette Clausen, Karoline Ebbesen, CW Eckersberg, Harald Giersing, Birke Gorm , Gudrun Hasle, Annette Holdensen, Olivia Holm-Møller, Olivia Rode Hvass, H.Å.M. (Hannah Amalie Nielsen, Åse Eg Jørgensen and Mette Damm), Adam Jeppesen, Cecilia de Jong, Jens Juel, Eva Koch, Christian Krohg, PS Krøyer, Rosita Kær, Anne-Sofie Overgaard, Julius Paulsen, Franka Rasmussen, Martinus Rørbye, Amalie Smith, Niels Larsen Stevns, Trine Søndergaard, Anna Thommesen, Hannah Toticki and Frederik Vermehren. 

Trine Søndergaard, Hovedtøj #57

  • Kunstmuseum Brandts
  • Amfipladsen 7
    5000 Odense C
  • October 5, 2024 – February 23, 2025

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