Yvette Brackman: Salon des Refusés

SMK (The National Gallery of Denmark) proudly presents Salon des Refusés, a groundbreaking installation by acclaimed artist Yvette Brackman and the culmination of an extensive artistic research project. Salon des Refusés delves into the largely underrepresented history of female Danish-Jewish artists, engaging a dialogue about their legacies within Danish cultural history with the Museum’s art historians. An artist's publication including images and texts from the exhibition will be forthcoming this winter.

Exploring transnational histories and art
Since 2000, Yvette Brackman (b. 1967, New York City) has been an influential figure in Denmark’s art scene. Her work, deeply rooted in her family’s transnational journey as Jewish dissidents from the Soviet Union to the United States, explores themes of displacement, identity, and cultural assimilation. Through diverse mediums, including sculpture, performance, video, and text, Brackman has conveyed her family’s narrative and broader historical contexts. This installation employs similar approaches as the artist explores the Museum’s collection.

A Journey Through the Past
Salon des Refusés is a part of Brackman’s postdoctoral research project at SMK. It interlaces her own artworks and texts about her family and Jewish history and identity with works from the museum’s collection and texts by the museum’s curators. Utilizing her own history as a lens, Brackman delves into the Museum’s extensive collection, spanning 700 years of visual art, to unearth new stories, highlighting accounts of escape, women’s art history, belonging, transnational artistic culture, and cultural assimilation by European Jewish artists.

“In this installation, I reflect on my relationship with Danish art history and seek an artistic lineage. The SMK collection has a strong national focus, and the history of Jewish artists in Denmark is underrepresented. My work aims to bridge these gaps by unfolding new narratives and incorporating relevant works,” says Yvette Brackman.

Reviving the spirit of the refused
Drawing inspiration from the 1863 French Salon des Refusés, Brackman’s installation features 27 works from 1100 to 1949, all reflecting Danish-Jewish history and its selective presence in the SMK collection. The exhibition focuses on Jewish artists and histories that diverge from the popular narrative of assimilation and tolerance. Highlighted artists include Juliette Meyer Willumsen (1863-1949), a Jewish woman who was an acclaimed artist up until the time of her divorce from Jens Ferdinand Willumsen (1863-1958) and now forgotten; Ville Jais-Nielsen (1886-1949), also well-known in her lifetime and now being rediscovered; Marie Henriques (1866-1944), an important artist in her own time and an advocate for woman artists; and Chana Orloff (1888-1968), a highly acclaimed artist in France and Israel, but unknown in Denmark. Each artist embodies distinct narratives of defeat, flight, assimilation, and rebellion.

Initiated in 2020, Brackman’s installation resonates powerfully with contemporary issues, particularly in light of the origins of antisemitic European history. While rooted in historical events, the project underscores the enduring relevance and interconnectedness of the past in shaping the present, inviting the viewer to reflect on the contemporary implications of these historical narratives.

Exhibition details
The Salon des Refusés installation will be on view at SMK from 11 April to 8 September, 2024. Join us in exploring these compelling stories and their significance within the broader tapestry of art history.

About the artist
Yvette Brackman (b. 1967) holds an MA in art history, an MA in fine art, and a certificate in gender studies from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She was born in New York City, and has lived in Denmark since 1999. Since 2020, Brackman has been a Mads Øvlisen Postdoctoral Fellow at SMK.

Brackman’s artistic practice has been recognized both in Denmark and internationally. Her works have been exhibited at venues such as O—Overgaden Institute for Contemporary Art, Nikolaj Kunsthal, and the Liverpool Biennial. Her influence extends beyond her exhibitions, as she has been a professor and head of the School for Walls and Space at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, and a visiting professor at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts.

In 2016, SMK acquired a collection of her AGIT MEM works, part of a series that draws on references to the Russian historical avant-garde and her family’s history as immigrants. In 2022, the Danish Arts Foundation awarded Yvette Brackman the Lifelong Artistic Achievement honorarium.

For further information, please contact: SMK Press, presse@smk.dk / T: +45 2552 7279