Man’s Dream

20. September 2025 - 1. March 2026

In the fall of 2025, Heerup Museum’s 25th anniversary is celebrated with a thematic solo exhibition that presents Henry Heerup’s artistic development through representative key works in painting, sculpture and graphics. Many of the works are from the museum’s own collection, including a number of significant new acquisitions and donations, but important works from other Danish art museums and private collectors that have not previously been shown at Heerup Museum are also included to supplement the themes in the museum’s unique collection.

In the anniversary exhibition, we want to highlight Heerup’s artistic work through a selection of the universal human themes that he was already known for working with in his own time; Family, Love, War and Nature. The four themes function as a prism for Heerup’s ongoing investigations of human existence through close experiences and relationships as well as landmark events and cultural movements. Through these overarching themes, which are also highly relevant in a contemporary context, Heerup unfolds as a curious and experimental artist who, on the one hand, builds his own recognizable visual language, and on the other hand, continuously processes materials and motifs in new and surprising ways.

Over a long artistic career, Heerup has been involved in countless artistic contexts, from avant-garde groups to more popular and commercial collaborations. Across the many different materials he works with, naturalistic, symbolist and expressionist forms of expression are seen, all of which testify to Heerup’s range as an artist and contribute to the understanding of his life’s work. Therefore, the exhibition will include iconic works such as ‘Vanløse Madonna’ and ‘Årstiderne’ side by side with lesser-known works that draw attention to the variations that live in the detail and the deviation from the familiar.

The central themes connect to the understanding of Heerup that was formulated during his own lifetime, but also open up new understandings of the ways in which he nuances familiar themes, symbols and motifs over time in dialogue with the given material, the art historical tradition and, not least, the art audience. Heerup did not see art as a story about the great distant genius, but as a valuable source of new insights and imaginative interactions with the world. He coined the phrase the ‘power of the motif’ as a way to capture and hold the viewer’s attention, but still oscillated between abstract and figurative expressions in his works. With the anniversary exhibition, visitors are invited to experience these sensual and symbolic oscillations and immerse themselves in Heerup’s creative processes and approach to the great themes of art and life.

Many recurring themes and symbols can be traced across Heerup’s forms of expression, but these are rarely themes that can be exhausted or fixed in their content and meaning. On the contrary, it is the exploration of the both intense and complex movements in life that encourages Heerup to delve again and again into Family, Love, War and Nature. In working with these themes, he examines how humans, with body and soul, connect to the world, and how art holds a special potential in terms of expressing emotions and ideas that are anything but straightforward. Art can open important conversations about the relationships we enter into, the planet we inhabit, and the threats we encounter on the path of life. In other words, there is no reason to believe that the understanding of Heerup’s artistic relationship to the above themes has been fully developed. On the contrary, his view of existential themes and the connection between life and art is extremely relevant today and for the new generations who have not yet become acquainted with Heerup. Based on a desire to let these themes resonate with the art audience today, we invite visitors to delve into Heerup’s powerful and diverse visual universe in a colorful celebration of 25 years of Heerup Museum in Rødovre.

The exhibition is generously supported by:

The New Carlsberg Foundation, the Augustinus Foundation, the Knud Højgaard Foundation, the Beckett Foundation, the Axel Muusfeldt Foundation, the Aage and Johanne Louis-Hansen Foundation, the A.P. Møller Foundation, the Arne V. Schlesch Foundation and the Bestle Foundation.