Louisiana Museum

The Louisiana Museum is about 45 minutes north of Copenhagen located on the Oresund Sound.  On a clear day you can Sweden from the shore.  It is a must stop for anyone visiting this city.  It is a gem of a museum with a collection of modern and contemporary art and a frequent rotation of exhibits.

Before getting on the bus to go out there we stopped in at one of the many Riccos in the city.  It is the Starbucks of Copenhagen but way cooler and each of them look a little different.  You would never know it is a chain.  I had a roll with butter, strawberry jam and cheese with a coffee. 

The exhibit we went to see is a retrospective of Yoko Ono celebrating her 80th birthday.  Really an extraordinary exhibit.  Once you walk in there is a long wall that essentially gives the history of Yoko from birth to now.  As a huge fan of John (and of course Yoko) I knew most of the history.  It is amazing that he was killed 33 years ago.  One of the things in the exhibit which I found interesting is they noted Yoko's twitter followers.  As you go through the exhibit you realize how much she has been ahead of the curve particularly in media her entire career.

Many museums you go to always run after you and say "no photos please" which I never quite understand particularly if you are not using a flash.  Not in Denmark.  I love this sticker.  It is all over the museum.  Get Involved!

There are many rooms of her work starting out in the early 60's when she began doing work with John Cage and others.  This room was one of my favorites.  She has such interest in how we all sit in the universe. The center piece is called Morning Beams/Riverbed 1996/2013.

On the right are bottles of water, each the same exact size and measurement.  This show was first shown in 1967.  Each bottle has someones name on it.  It is actually interesting how she arranges them.  For instance, Jimmy Hendrix, Winston Churchill and Yves Klein sit next to each other.  Kurt Cobain, Virginia Wolf and Napoleon Bonapart sit next to each other. 

John Lennon, Ernest Hemmingway and Albert Einstein sit next to each other. Kinda cool.

The back wall is filled with small dot drawings that she made.  I had never seen her drawings so it was interesting to see how prolific she is as an artist.

The other side of the room is called Vertical Memory.  Each is a photography layered over many times of the faces of her father, John and her son.  She took photos of them facing several directions and morphed them together.  Each represent a man that looked over her in a certain situation in her life. 

Here is one of the captions. 

These are called Air Balls.  Small plastic bottles in the machines where you'd get a ring or a toy.  It is the air that links us.  1967.

There is a large room with videos and shows over the course of her career.

This is the last piece you see as you exit the exhibit.  It is called The Story of My Life which is a video shot by Karl Lagerfeld in 2012.  It is just here dancing around and having fun. 

Really glad I got to see this.  Going back and looking at all the work the next day from the photos I took really made an impact.  She has continued to puruse new artistic ventures through out her career with the same theme of art even after publically losing the love of her life.  It was obvious from the exhibition how much influence John and Yoko had on each other.  Fred and I have always been a fan.  I can see Double Fantasy doing some serious airtime on Sonos when I return.