Richard Winther 100 Years

The Nivaagaard Collection marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of the Danish artist Richard Winther (1926–2007) with a major exhibition devoted to this highly versatile, uncompromising, perpetually inquisitive and endlessly creative figure in Danish art. The exhibition presents examples of the extraordinary breadth of Winther’s artistic practice, alongside pieces from his private collection, including works by major modernists such as Giacometti, Picasso, Max Ernst, Sonja Ferlov Mancoba and Miró. Winther’s collection is presented and staged in collaboration with the Danish contemporary artist Mie Mørkeberg.

Richard Winther’s artistic career spanned more than six decades, leaving behind a vast and far-reaching body of work. Throughout his life, he explored the nature of art in theory and practice, working across the realms of painting, photography, sculpture, printmaking, film, music, literature, and public commissions.

His works are animated by the unfettered lines of an artist, yet his approach was as systematic as that of a scientist. His practice embraced both the spontaneous and the constructed, the wildly expressionistic and the rigorously geometric. He was greatly fascinated by the technical aspects of image-making, inventing and building more than one hundred cameras from simple materials.

An indefatigable collector and creator, he pursued the essence of art with relentless curiosity. He examined his materials almost literally to the bone: preserving the skeletons of dead animals for anatomical study, dismantling old cameras and reconstructing them in new forms, and casting himself as figures from art history, among them Leonardo da Vinci in his persona as Ricardo da Winti. In his final years, he took on the role of the hermit Hieronymus.

Richard Winther’s subjects and figures revolve around themes of identity, sexuality, mythology, religion, human relationships – and art itself. References to the full history of art, as well as to visual culture more broadly, are deeply embedded in his practice. He drew ceaselessly on his art-historical predecessors, adopting them as alter egos during different phases of artistic exploration.

From Ricardo da Nivå to his great work in Vindeby

From 1966 to 1987, Richard Winther lived in Nivå and, in homage to the masters of the Italian Renaissance, adopted the name Ricardo da Nivå during that time. Alongside his own practice, Winther was involved in a number of artistic communities, including as co-founder of Linien II, as a teacher at the Experimental Art School (Eks-Skolen), and a member of the artists’ group Arme og Ben (literally ‘Arms and Legs’). From 1980 to 1986, he was also professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen.

In 1993, at the age of 67, Winther moved to Lolland and took over a disused nursing home in Vindeby, near Maribo, where he had been born. Here he began decorating the walls, ceilings and doors of the house with grotesque, humorous and unsettling imagery. At the same time, he continued his energetic and experimental practice with unabating vigour. These late works were painted on pieces of cardboard from the local supermarket and with paint salvaged from bulky waste. The recycled materials were matched by recurring artistic motifs. Today, the house in Vindeby remains a masterwork of Danish art, testifying to Winther’s lifelong dedication to his craft.

Richard Winther’s uncompromising approach to art and life – which also entailed a persistent rejection of the commercial sphere and a growing preoccupation with an extremely simple lifestyle – gradually led him away from the art scene and close to oblivion. He was highly respected in professional artistic circles and received, among other honours, Denmark’s highest distinction for visual artists, the Thorvaldsen Medal, in 1997, and the foremost distinction for painters, the Eckersberg Medal, in 1971. From 1974, he also received a lifelong grant from the Danish Arts Foundation.

Today, he himself has become one of the defining personalities of art history, one whose experimental and powerful practice continues to inspire new generations.

Mie Mørkeberg curates Winther’s collection as an immersive installation

The exhibition presents a large number of carefully selected examples of Richard Winther’s immense artistic range, shown alongside works by key influences from his private collection of international modernists. This significant collection included pieces by illustrious figures such as Alberto Giacometti, Pablo Picasso, Max Ernst, Sonja Ferlov Mancoba and Joan Miró; works that he later donated to the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek and SMK – The National Gallery of Denmark.

The insight into Winther’s own art collection forms a distinct section of the exhibition, staged in collaboration with one of the leading Danish artists of our time, Mie Mørkeberg (b. 1980), who presents the works in what is essentially an immersive installation.

Mie Mørkeberg often incorporates Surrealist traits in her own paintings, letting figures, objects and symbols appear before us in indeterminate spaces. Many Danes also know her for the large-scale group portrait Samtalen 1918–2024 (The Conversation 1918–2024), a depiction of thirty women politicians commissioned for a conference room at the Danish Parliament.

Mie Mørkeberg arranges selected works from Winther’s collection in a gallery whose walls she will decorate herself, inspired by the imagery created by Richard Winther in his house at Vindeby. In the process, Mørkeberg will experiment with echoing Winther’s line and his approach to themes such as gender and identity, which are also central to her own work.

The exhibition Richard Winther 100 Years opens on 1 May and runs until 13 September. From June to August, the exhibition can be experienced in conjunction with a creative summer workshop for all ages in the museum’s Garden Foyer.

The exhibition is supported by the Aage and Johanne Louis-Hansen Foundation, the Knud Højgaard Foundation, and the Jørgen Kryger and Anne Ammitzbøll Foundation. Works are on loan from Fuglsang Kunstmuseum, Kastrupgårdsamlingen, Museum Jorn, the New Carlsberg Foundation, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Rudersdal Municipality’s Collection of Modern Art, Skive Kunstmuseum, Museum Salling’s art collection, SMK – National Gallery of Denmark, as well as generous private lenders, including the artist’s son Tobias Winther.