Family Nordic Art-Venture

Posted on December 9, 2014 by Experiment Station

Traditional small paper hearts from Denmark

This weekend, the Phillips is hosting a Nordic Wonderland family program in collaboration with the embassies of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. To help us get ready for the celebration, we asked staff to share important Nordic winter traditions from their countries.

“Hygge” in Denmark

In Denmark, wintertime is about bringing light and warmth into your homes and being with the ones you love. The Danish word for this is “hygge.” One very popular activity for Danes in December is creating small paper hearts to hang around homes to contribute to a cozy atmosphere—“hygge.”

Jette Renneberg Elkjær, Cultural Attaché, Embassy of Denmark

Gígjökull, an outlet glacier extending from Eyjafjallajökull, Iceland. Photo: Andreas Tille via http://commons.wikimedia.org/

The Old Calendar in Iceland

The vikings that settled Iceland more than a thousand years ago faced life in a difficult and challenging natural environment. This was particularly true in winter as this was long before houses had central heating or Icelanders learned to tap the warmth of the Earth’s core for heating and energy. The old Icelandic calendar was therefore based around the solstices and equinoxes that celebrated the times when the day started to grow longer and the darkest Winter was ending. Each of the twelve months was 30 days long with an additional four day period in summer known as Sumarauki or “summer-addition,” a welcome way to mark the brightest and warmest part of the year. Currently we are in the month of Ýlir or “howler” which is fitting for the windy and dark winter months in the North Atlantic.

Erlingur Erlingsson, Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of Iceland

Cross-country Skiing in Norway. Photo: Lars Verket/MFA.

Cross-Country Skiing in Norway
Out of countless winter traditions, cross-country skiing might be the most beloved of all in Norway. This popular activity can be describes as travel on skis over snow-covered terrain by self-locomotion, either by striding forward or by a skating motion, aided by arms pushing ski poles against the snow. In contrast to downhill skiing, cross-country skiing usually takes place over plains and landscapes with both ascents and descents along the way.

Cross-country skiing first started as a means of transportation almost five millennia ago in Scandinavia. Today, most Norwegians cross-country ski for recreation and fun, and many enjoy it as a competitive sport as well.

Almost as soon as the first snow falls, you will find skiers of all ages in forests, mountains, and open fields enjoying the snow covered landscapes. Cross-country skiing is a very popular family activity, and it is not unusual for children to go on school trips to ski. What many look forward to the most when cross-country skiing, however, is reaching one of the many cabins along the trails serving Norwegian waffles and hot chocolate to weary skiers in need of rest.

Silje R. Morsman, Student Trainee, Royal Norwegian Embassy

Take a Virtual Tour of Neo-Impressionism and the Dream of Realities

Posted on December 5, 2014 by Experiment Station

Haven’t seen Neo-Impressionism and the Dream of Realities: Painting, Poetry, Music yet? Let Exhibition Curator Cornelia Homburg take you on a brief tour through the galleries.

The Music Room: And in this corner…

Posted on December 4, 2014 by Experiment Station

The Music Room. Photo: Emily Hurwitz

One of the great things about The Phillips Collection is that even though the space is stationary, the art is not. I started my internship at the Phillips about a month ago. On one of my first journeys through the collection, I found myself staring at The Repentant St. Peter by El Greco, which was then on display in the Music Room. The dark browns of the painting’s background perfectly complemented the rich wood paneling of the room, which made the bright yellows and blues draped around the figure himself seem especially vibrant. He is a contemplative figure, filled with emotion. What a perfect fit for a Music Room—a place that can in and of itself inspire quiet and emotional contemplation, while simultaneously bursting with the vibrancy of a musical work.

Imagine my surprise, then, when I ventured back into the Music Room a few weeks later and found not St. Peter, but Georges Rouault’s Verlaine. And imagine my further surprise when I realized that that painting was also a perfect fit for this corner of the Music Room: not because of the stark background and emotive figure, but because of the brush strokes that captured an almost musical movement, and the figure that seemed like he himself was listening intensely to someone—or something—just outside of the frame. The context of a painting really can inspire an entirely new conversation about the work, and the feeling of the room itself can change depending on what is staring back at you from these walls.

Emily Hurwitz, Marketing and Communications Intern