This week, Curious Louisiana is addressing a question from our newsroom regarding why our state's name is anchoring a landmark art museum half a world away: "What’s the deal with the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art being not in Louisiana but in Denmark?"
The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art occupies a picturesque spot on the shore of Øresund Sound, about 40 minutes north of Copenhagen. It's not only Denmark's preeminent modern art museum, but one of the most prestigious ones in the world.
Louisiana's design was inspired by both Japanese architecture and that of the San Francisco Bay area.
The museum was founded by Knud W. Jensen in 1958. Originally designed to house Danish modern art — for which there was no outlet in the country at the time — it soon morphed into an international museum featuring artworks from around the world.
The museum's design was inspired by both Japanese and San Francisco Bay culture. As its website puts it, the museum was different from the start.
"From the beginning, it was Knud W. Jensen’s vision to create a museum with soul, where the public could encounter artwork — not as something pretentious, but rather something that spoke directly to the viewer," it reads. "He emphasized the need for “supplementary content” that could help bring alive and enrich the environment."
The Louisiana's permanent collection numbers more than 4,000 pieces, and it hosts international exhibits regularly. Current shows include The Irreplaceable Human, a large-scale, interdisciplinary exhibition with works by more than 60 artists, and the first museum exhibition by feminist-activist art collective Pussy Riot.
Over the years, other featured artists have included leading lights such as Richard Prince, Lauren Greenfield, Taryn Simon and Diane Arbus.
The views from the museum are, by all accounts, stunning.
So what's the connection to the state of Louisiana? Well ... there isn't one.
Instead, its name comes from the building it's housed in, which was built in 1855 by Alexander Brun. Brun, an officer and Master of the Royal Hunt (a link between the Danish Royal Family and the country's state forests), named the building after the three women he married: All were named Louise.
It turns out that the state of Louisiana/Louisiana museum question isn't exactly new to the people who work there.
"We rather often are asked whether there is a connection," said Jan Hybertz Gøricke, the museum's Head of Press.
"But even more often, we see posts on social media in which people mention that they have visited Louisiana, adding to it that they are not in the U.S. but in Denmark. Doing international media monitoring, we see quite a lot of media coverage that has nothing to do with us but the U.S. state of Louisiana — including news from Ϳʷ¼."
The Danish museum didn't stop at in-person visual art experiences. In 2012, it launched the , an online platform designed to provide culture that extends beyond the museum’s events. The Louisiana team produces videos about art, literature, architecture, design and music on an ongoing basis. New videos are posted on the site every week.
