The Danish National Art Library is the national research library for architecture, art history, visual arts and museum studies in Denmark. It is located in central Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark. It was founded in 1754 as part of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and became an independent institution just over twenty years ago. It owns over 300,000 books about art history, architecture, the visual arts, and related subjects. It also stores about 300,000 architectural drawings from the middle 1500s until today. Around 14,000 of these have been digitized, in an ambitious program. The collection focuses on Danish architects, but there are also many items of international interest. As a page of the library website indicates, The Danish National Art Library has long been a major resource for students and specialists as the largest library on the subject in the Scandinavian region.
Over the years, the Danish National Art Library has been extensively used by artists, architects and art historians as a source of inspiration and knowledge. Among the library’s readers have been many students who became noted artists in later life. For example, Constantin Hansen (1804–1880) a painter associated with the Golden Age of Danish Painting. Hansen was interested in literature and mythology, and created a style of national historical painting based on Norse mythology. Another well-known painter who visited the library was Jørgen Valentin Sonne (1801–1890, Copenhagen) famous for depicting battle scenes. Architects too appreciated the collections of the library, including Ludvig Fenger (1833–1905), who designed historically minded buildings as City Architect in Copenhagen. Among the special collections available are Weilbach’s Archive, materials once belonging to Philip Weilbach (1834–1900), the Danish art historian who wrote a biographical dictionary, Weilbach’s Artists’ Lexicon. After the library’s official founding in the mid-1700s, it received its first big boost in 1810 when HM Frederick VI of Denmark, King of Denmark and Norway, purchased the private library of the Danish painter Nicolai Abildgaard and gave it to what was then the library of the art academy. Abildgaard (1743–1809) was a royal history painter and professor of painting, mythology, and anatomy, among his other interests and specialities. The library acquired its first architectural drawings in the mid-1800s and soon after, its first photographs, around the time when the history of art was accepted as a subject for university studies. After many further developments and construction, in 2004 the library officially reopened as The Danish National Art Library. A major digitalization program was launched in 2011.
While the collections are principally devoted to books about the history of art and architecture, there are also many studies on art theory, aesthetics, and method; space, colour, perspective; topography; iconography; the history, theory and practice of collections and museums; art and society; and artistic and cultural exchange. Books are owned in all Western European languages, especially Scandinavian languages, English, and German. Among the particularly useful resources for historical researchers is the collection of old Danish exhibition catalogs from the 1760s to about 1920, digitalized and available for download and study. There are also other printed materials difficult to find elsewhere, such as collections of articles known as Festschrifts, a German language term meaning something written in celebration. Often in Western countries, Festschrifts are sometimes published in honor of an important birthday, or retirement of a distinguished ajarn. They sometimes contain important research, but these chapters are not always easy for researchers to locate. The library offers e-resources making it simpler to search for content in these volumes. Equally challenging to find for some researchers are items from conferences, which are also indexed by the library.
Grey literature, materials and research produced by organizations outside of the traditional commercial or academic publishing and distribution channels, is also organized in the library. Grey literature has no ISBN number or other formal identifier, but might have been copied in a limited number of examples for internal use in an educational institution. Reports, working papers, and study plans are examples of grey literature. The Danish National Art Library owns a considerable amount of grey literature, to be found by catalogue search. The library’s oldest book, in a collection of about 500 rare and precious books, is an architectural treatise from the 1500s by Leon Battista Alberti, an Italian humanist writer. Other rare books in the collection from the 1500s are by other Italian Renaissance authors, including Andrea Palladio, Andrea Pozzo, and Giovanni Paolo Lomazzo. The architectural photography collection also contains many treasures, including images dating back to the 1860s.
Thailand and Denmark
According to Denmark in Thailand 2008, published by The Royal Danish Embassy, Bangkok, mutual tourism between Thailand and Denmark is increasing. In 2004 over 87,000 Danish tourists visited Thailand, with 80% of them staying in Phuket. By 2006, the number had risen to more than 128,000. Now, the figure is closer to 170.000 annually. As of 2008, about 2000 Danes were estimated to be living in Thailand for most or all of the year. On the website of the Royal Danish Embassy, His Excellency Uffe Wolffhechel, Ambassador of Denmark to the Kingdom of Thailand, observes:
There is a rich and fruitful commercial relationship between Thailand and Denmark – not only in trade and tourism, but also with regard to investment. More than a hundred Danish companies are present here and have created many thousand jobs in the country. Welcoming the good framework conditions for foreign investment, it is my ambition to work hard for a further deepening of the commercial cooperation between the private sectors of Thailand and Denmark in favour of both countries.
Last year the ambassador told an interviewer that he enjoys running in Lumpini Park. In some countries where he served as Danish ambassador, public exercise was not possible due to security issues. He has been supporting international efforts by non-governmental organizations in Denmark to promote Danish language education in Thailand and establish a Danish Church in Bangkok. Among specifically Danish expertise which the ambassador considers may be of use for Thai businesses are
activities within the core Danish competence sectors like design/creativity, clean industry, sustainable or renewable energy, food processing and health care.
The ambassador’s wife, Susie A. Ruff, is an expert in health care innovation.
Other Danes working on international exchange with Thailand formed the The Danish-Thai Chamber of Commerce (DTCC or DanCham) to promote and expand trade between Thailand and Denmark and serve as a forum for networking among the Thai and Danish business people in Thailand. DanCham is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. Among specific examples of business exchanges was an exhibit in September organized by Norse Republics, distributor of the furniture brand Republic of Fritz Hansen. The items were displayed at a showroom on Soi Somkid off Ploenchit.
(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)