Drifting aimlessly through Louisiana Museum of Modern Art on Saturday I came across this wide charcoal drawing by David Hockney. This stunning museum had so far been such a powerful experience in itself as a space displaying art in a landscape setting that it really got me thinking about contexts for display. If the art is so set within nature then which has the more powerful effect? Does the nature always blow the art away or do they compliment each other?

I hadn’t expected to see the Hockney drawing at all so it was a pleasant surprise. I have always been drawn to Hockney’s thoughts on art, painting, drawing and experience. His book Hockney on Hockney (publ. 1976) remains one of my favourites on his creative process, the influences and inspirations behind his work and how, from that early period, the work came about. It’s an easy read too as he’s such a great communicator. I really recommend it. I find his ideas on perception, the depiction of space and his attempts to render these on a flat static surface fascinating. I have similar concerns and it’s the same questions that keep niggling away at you provoking you to do more.

I like the wall panel by this drawing and it echoed what I had been thinking about so I shall quote some of it here…

”… the artist generously donated the preparatory sketch…. Built up of myriad line fragments and bundles of hatchings, it is clear how the artist captures just exactly enough of his subject to bring out its pictorial potential. Nature cannot be surpassed, but nor is that the task of art, according to Hockney. Rather, art must elicit a human response; this has been its mission throughout history. Matisse and Picasso, artists whom Hockney holds in high esteem, also worked on the basis of this idea”.

Charcoal Drawing for “A Closer Grand Canyon’, 1988. Charcoal on paper. Wide, about 2.5 metres.

I have come to Copenhagen to see two exhibitions of work by pioneering 20th. century female artists at two stunning galleries: Sonia Delaunay at Louisiana Museum of Modern Art and Suzanne Valadon Artist, Model, Rebel at the Glyptoteket.

‘From a childhood marked by poverty to a career as a popular artist’s model, French artist Suzanne Valadon (1865-1938) defied the odds to become a successful painter.

She challenged the social norms of her time to assert her independence, becoming the first self-taught woman to exhibit at Salon de la Nationale des Beaux Arts. Valadon defied her background in terms of class, gender and lifestyle, breaking new ground with her uncompromising portraits and nudes.

It is more than a century since Valadon painted her unapologetic portraits of self-assured women with strong, curvaceous bodies. The Glyptotek’s exhibition Suzanne Valadon – model, painter, rebel presents the contribution the artist made to European art at the beginning of the 20th century with a focus on her agency and business acumen. With their dark hallmark contours and bright colours, Valadon’s works demonstrate wit and boldness in grappling with themes and issues that continue to provoke debate today: female desire, the conflicts of marriage and motherhood, and the way women themselves experience their bodies.’ Glyptoteket exhibition introduction.

‘Sonia Delaunay (1885-1979) was at the same time a painter, designer, and entrepreneur. She ranks among the most original and fascinating voices of modernism.

When Sonia Delaunay entered a Parisian dance hall in 1913 wearing a collage-like dress that resembled a colorful, cubist painting, it was a statement that attracted attention. It made an impression in the avant-garde environment of the time. Here, the visual art came strolling out of the painting’s frame and directly into the modern, dynamic everyday life.

Right there Delaunay manifested her artistic program and trademark: it was not just about modernizing the visual arts but the culture in a much broader sense.’ Louisiana Modern Art Museum exhibition introduction.