Danish and international art

The collection focus of Holstebro Kunstmuseum is on significant trends in Danish and international art and crafts from the 1930s to the present day. Since its inception, the museum has collected a relatively small number of artists, who on the other hand are comprehensively represented, often retrospectively.

Among the Danish artists in the museum's collection are the lyrical naturalist Lauritz Hartz, the imaginative naivist Henry Heerup, the abstract surrealist Ejler Bille and the experimental artist Albert Mertz. In sculpture, Astrid Noack and Erik Thommesen, whose works represent timeless aspects of human figure representation in sculptural history, in the cross-field from naturalism to abstraction. Today, Holstebro Kunstmuseum also houses Astrid Noack’s Study Collection, including a large number of original plaster models. 

Artistic handicrafts are also represented, as expressions of equal validity, by Ursula Munch-Petersen, Gutte Eriksen and later Gertrud Vasegaard, as well as the textile artist Anna Thommesen. Several works by the artists who carried out commissions for the town have also been collected for the museum.

The historical parts of the museum’s collections are generally characterised by the link between the avant-garde group Linien (1934-1939) and the later, more traditionally-oriented artist association Martsudstillingen (1951-1982). Several of the museum’s distinctive figures were initiators and members of both groups, including Ejler Bille and Erik Thommesen – which to a large extent explains the collection’s focus on the enduring values in the development of art. 

The collection of international graphic art originally consisted of works by Marc Chagall, Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse. These were soon complemented by a graphic series by Alberto Giacometti.