THE EX-SCHOOL

Permanent exhibition

The most important school in the 1960s in terms of creative work and experiments

The Experimental Art School was founded by the artist Poul Gernes and the art historian Troels Andersen in 1961 in Copenhagen as an alternative to the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. Based on the revolutionary working community of students and teachers, the so-called Ex-School grew to become the most important Danish artists’ group of the 1960s. The school had a major influence on the Danish 1960s avant-garde, which experimented with painting, printmaking, and sculpture, attracting public attention with happenings, films, publications, and installation art.

Up through the 1960s, the school functioned as an inspirational centrifuge for the young artists and pop art, happenings, minimalism, and experimental films were part of the repertoire.

The exhibition shows some of the most striking works from the active period of the Ex-School (1961–1969) combined with later works by representatives of the school, including Per Kirkeby, Peter Louis-Jensen, Richard Winther, Bjørn Nørgaard, Poul Gernes, Roger Martyn Pring, Lene Adler Petersen, and John Davidsen.

SELECTED WORKS FROM THE EXHIBITION