Danish museum invites Nordic artists to participate in portrait competition
Open call: Now is the time to find the best Nordic portraits. The portrait competition “Portrait NOW! 2017”, The Carlsberg Foundation’s Portrait Award, is open for entries. The Carlsberg Foundation’s Portrait Award is a bi-annual competition for Nordic artists established in 2007 and presented by The Museum of National History at Frederiksborg Castle in Denmark.
The aim of the competition is to bring about greater interest for the portrait genre amongst artists and the general public. The competition applies to artists in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Greenland, The Faroe Islands, Iceland, and The Åland Islands.
“Portraits allow us to connect with people across time and place. Looking at portraits will make us think about what the potentials and limitations of human life are. We have something fundamentally human in common with those people we see in the portraits. A humanistic space, where we are each other’s companions,” says Mette Skougaard, Director at the Museum of National History at Frederiksborg Castle in Denmark. Mette Skougaard is one of the members of the jury. Other members of the international jury include Ólöf Kristín Sigurðardóttir, Director at Reykjavík Art Museum in Iceland and Pontus Ljungberg, director at Ljungbergmuseet in Sweden. “We look forward to seeing the portraits created for this particular competition. We expect it to be a tough task for the jury to find the best portraits out of many qualified entries,” says Mette Skougaard. The portrait Each artist can submit one portrait to the competition. ‘The portrait’ is understood as a reproduction of a particular person. It need not be naturalistic, but should, however, seek to characterise the person as an individual. The medium used for this reproduction is at the discretion of the artist. The artwork must be based on at least one face to face session with the portraitee. The official entry form and a digital photograph of the art work must be registered on the website www.portrait-now.com by 31 December 2016.
The jury will select the prize winners and the portraits which will form part of a portrait exhibition opening in May 2017 at The Museum of National History at Frederiksborg Castle. 1st Prize is awarded DKK 85,000, and 2nd Prize, 3rd Prize, audience prize and innovation prizes will also receive awards.
For more information please contact press officer Katrine Holst – kh@dnm.dk – +45 4820 1442.