ABSTRACT
The multivalent international character of expressionism is important to keep in mind with regard to its history in Denmark. The short history of Danish expressionism constitutes a discursive battlefield of rivaling artists, ideas, and influences, involving not only questions of art and aesthetics but also of politics and national identities. The chapter provides an outline of the most important events and agents in the reception and transmission of expressionist art and discourses in Denmark. During the war, a number of important private collections of European modernist painting were established in the Danish capital. In general, Danish artists and critics refrained from such philosophical speculations as to the “inner” motivations or cultural explanations of the formal rupture in early twentieth-century painting. The Danish government pursued a strategy of accommodating Germany as much as possible while simultaneously trying to exploit the advantages of being a neutral state.
