Humlebæk Things to Do Tips by mindcrime

Louisiana Museum of Modern Art

Visiting Louisiana Museum of Modern Art is one of the best choices for someone that loves modern art… come on, you know that Denmark isn’t only palaces and tapestries, don’t you? :)

The museum is located on a picturesque area, up on a hill with a beautiful view over Oresund coast so you also have nice scenery in the picture, no excuse to skip this museum.

It is housed on a nice building from 19th century that once was a seaside house. It is named after the former owner’s wife and opened its gate to the public in 1958 (a small collection of modern Danish art at that time). It looks small on first sight (pic 1) but there are several buildings to walk through so some hours later I realized that I was walking among the amazing collection for about 3 hours!! Apart from the permanent collection there are interesting temporary collections that bring people to the museum again and again. There’s also an interesting garden with sculptures.

My tour through the permanent collection was a surprise, I usually like only some parts in museums of modern art but at Louisiana the long collection (that houses 3000 pieces covering the period after 1945) has many great corners that will make you stop unless you don’t like Warhol’s or Lichtenstein’s pop art, or works of Henry Moore, Picasso, Giacometti, Rauschenberg, Bourgeois and so many others. Classic modernism is always a safe step to build a collection but don’t skip some new artists. I always get bored with video art but I saw many installations of this kind in case you are interested.

Some classic pieces I liked at the permanent collection were:
1) Double Self-Portrait (1969 Leon Kossoff) (pic 2)
2) The Luncheon on the Grass (1961 Pablo Picasso) (pic 3) The painting inspired by the painting made by Edouard Manet in 1862 (it is housed in the Musee d’Orsay in Paris)
- Landlyst (1965 Arthur Kopcke) (pic 4) I guess many people may just laugh or ignore mixed media like this.
- Figures in Landscape (1977 Roy Lichtenstein) (pic 5) I love his work anyway so it’s always nice to catch up with him here and there all over the world
- Do You Remember Tahiti in September (1961 Martial Raysse) lovely mixed media

The café of the museum is great too because of the view so it’s worth a visit to the museum even if you are not really into modern art.

Louisiana Art Museum is open Tuesday to Friday 11.00-22.00, weekends 11.00-18.00.
The ticket is 95DKK (about 13 euro -2011 prices), free with Copenhagen card, there’s also a train ticket from Copenhagen that includes the museum’s fee

Address: Gammel Strandvej 13, 3050 Humlebaek

Directions: 35’ by train from Copenhagen and then 15’ walk from Humlebaek train station

Phone: +45 4919 0719

Website: http://www.louisiana.dk/

Louisiana Museum-Temporary Exhibitions

Louisiana Museum of Modern Art house a great permanent collection but also some interesting temporary ones, check their web site to see if something looks interesting for you.

We were there on July 2011 and there were 2 small ones and one huge temporary exhibitions. The small ones were:
“Me Draw On iPad” by David Hockney. A collection of his works on iTouches and iPads,
“Louisiana On Paper” by Josef Albers.

I didn’t really check the small ones because I spent most of my time at the large-scale exhibition “Living:Frontiers Of Architecture III-IV”. For those that are interested in architecture is a must obviously but it was very interesting in general due to the fact that it also covered a look through anthropological lens (why the people choose to live in a specific way, in a specific building, city, with inner yards or with large public squares, demands by the social network, individual ideas, where the public vs private borders stop, why we live, how, where and with whom are some of the questions that popped out of our heads here and there and we had a lot of subjects to discuss later in the evening. It seems the social development is always a good starting point to find answers in may different issues…

Pictures, video or film installations, drawings, hundreds small or large scale models of buildings, our heads were filled with tons of information (there were useful signs but also videos with interviews etc).

Last but not least we loved the small viewing gallery where you could see outside at the sea (pic 3), it’s amazing how Louisiana museum combines its own architecture, the art pieces of its collection but also the exterior real world, windows through the nature…. Great experience!

Louisiana Art Museum is open Tuesday to Friday 11.00-22.00, weekends 11.00-18.00.
The ticket is 95DKK (about 13 euro -2011 prices)

Address: Gammel Strandvej 13, 3050 Humlebaek

Directions: 35’ by train from Copenhagen and then 15’ walk from Humlebaek train station

Phone: +45 4919 0719

Website: http://www.louisiana.dk/

Humlebaek Town

I don’t think any tourist would ever visit the small town of Humlebaek if it wasn't for the Louisiania Museum of Modern Art.

We were there for the same reason so we didn’t care that much. On our way to/from the museum we noticed a bakery (very helpful if you want to spend much at the beautiful but overpriced café of the museum), a pizzeria and numerous picturesque houses, after all it’s just a residential town. So we take many pictures of some of the houses. Small parks here and there (pic 4 shows a path into one of them)

What else can you see on a place that is actually a residential area? A great museum and some relaxing beaches (near the museum) will keep you satisfy 100% for a day trip out of Copenhagen...

Lousiana Museum-The Sculpture Garden

The wonderful park grounds of Louisiana Museum topped our visit there. First, we enjoyed the superb art collection and then we were ready to relax outside at the garden where the full view is amazing,

The landscape is beautiful with picturesque corners and many sculptures here and there, some of them are placed near the edge of the hill where you can lie on the grass and have full view of Oresund, the coast is right there down below. We loved it walking around, there were people having picnic, others reading books, sunbathing, kids playing non stop, other returning from the beach.

By the way some of the figures are made by famous artists so don’t bypass them. Check pic 4, it’s called “figure” made my Joan Miro in 1970. You will see sculptures by Henry Moore, George Traka, Arp, Calder, Bill, Laurens, Shapiro, Sekine.

The framework of the park was designed by the architects Ole and Edith Norgaard, no surprise their effort to create a shape that seems to follow the labyrinthine character of the museum buildings.

Louisiana Art Museum is open Tuesday to Friday 11.00-22.00, weekends 11.00-18.00.
The ticket is 95DKK (about 13 euro -2011 prices)

Address: Gammel Strandvej 13, 3050 Humlebaek

Directions: 35’ by train from Copenhagen and then 15’ walk from Humlebaek train station

Phone: +45 4919 0719

Website: http://www.louisiana.dk/

the beaches

After a long tour among the beautiful modern art items of the Louisiana museum you can go for swimming!!

Hublebaek has some nice beaches, some of them are located near the museum grounds, right down the hill. They are small in size, we noticed that most of the people use the small quay (there are many here and there along the beach) for entering the sea.

The weather was fine the day we visited the museum but we didn’t have any swim suits with us so we just watched some local families enjoying the cool waters. It was a peaceful evening, picturesque small boats were passing by (pic 3), at the nearby harbor -as expected- you can see lines of small or bigger boats while the green background is full of fishing houses, we stood there for some minutes before we head back to the train station.

Address: Humlebaek

Directions: facing the museum go right and walk down the steps