Galleri Bo Bjerggaard at The Armory Show

Chadd Kortge

Apr 2 2015

With important Georg Baselitz and Jannis Kounellis exhibitions currently on view in Copenhagen, Galleri Bo Bjerggaard is at the top of its game. H A P P E N I NG recently had the opportunity to sit down with Mr. Bjerggaard at the Armory Show in New York to discuss the two shows, the art market in Denmark, the gallery’s impressive art fair participation, and what’s happening next.

H A P P E N I N G: Could you tell us how Galleri Bo Bjerggaard came to be?

Bo Bjerggaard: I founded the gallery in 1999 with my partners Britt Bjerggaard, my wife, and Morten Korsgaard. I had been working at the Louisiana Museum for five years as head of daily operations there. At that time the founder was still alive, and he was kind of a mentor for me and he believed in what I was doing. After a while I left the Louisiana and started a career in marketing and sales. But in my spare time I started publishing art books with my wife. The second book we did was about Per Kirkeby’s painting. We founded the gallery with Kirkeby as the first artist, and then it grew from there. Our first show in the gallery was a Picabia show. One of our best known collaborations was with Sigmar Polke.

How would you describe Denmark as a place to exhibit contemporary art?

The good news about being in a small country is that there’s not the same kind of competition as in London, New York or Paris. And a lot of artists think that Scandinavia is an interesting place to be exhibited. So you have a chance to work with artists who are quite famous internationally because you can offer them something that no one else can. The bad news is that the market is quite small, so it takes a lot of nerve to realize these projects.

Tell us about your current collaboration with Jannis Kounellis

Well he is one of the most intense artists I know. I’ve never met someone so serious about his work. Kounellis came to the gallery and stayed for ten days to install the show. He was so precise, so addicted to the project. He took it as seriously as if it were an important museum show. And that’s something I really respect with him and his generation. There’s no fast track. Even though he’s 78 years old, he’s still so precise in what he’s doing. And very prescient. Everything is honest: If there’s a sack hanging on a metal work by Kounellis, and he says there’s coal in the sack, there’s coal in the sack. No matter how difficult it is to find what he needs, he’ll do it. No compromising.

And you have a great show of new Baselitz works on now too.

Yes, new watercolors. It’s our fourth show with Baselitz. I met Georg for the first time when I was working at the Louisiana in 1993 when he had a beautiful show there. We contacted him when we founded the gallery in 1999. And since he’s a great friend of Per Kirkeby it was easier for him to make the decision to work with us. Everything is about trust and reliability and faith. We did our first show with him one year after we opened. This current exhibition is 25 new watercolors, on view in our secondary space. It’s fantastic work.

How have you gone about putting the gallery’s program together?

For us it’s always been about fitting the pieces together - they shouldn’t overlap. Some people think it’s interesting to have a gallery with a specific style or a niche. I don’t. Especially when you’re in Copenhagen, I think it’s much more interesting to have artists who discover their own territory with their own power. But in a certain way they have to add something to the activity we are doing as gallerists. Every single artist should add something specific. Even if we have many artists who paint, they are doing it in very different ways. It’s also important for us to show artists who aren't Danish. We want to expose Scandinavian audiences to artists they wouldn’t see otherwise. That’s the challenge of being in Copenhagen. If we don’t show it, people probably won’t see it. And that’s both an opportunity and a responsibility.

Installation view Galleri Bo Bjerggaard at the Armory Show New York

How is your presence at art fairs like the Armory Show important to the work you do in that context?

When you are situated in Copenhagen, you have to be present internationally if you want clients and artists to respect you. And that’s why we came from Madrid here to New York and will then go to Cologne, Stockholm, etc. We do about eight fairs per year. That’s necessary to be a player in an international market. But, of course, it’s easier if you have a strong program.

And how do your presentations vary from fair to fair? What’s your strategy going into each one?

We do each fair with a precise, chosen concept. So this year at Madrid, which was our first year there, we showed bigger works. We felt we had to make a statement. We have a lot of clients here in New York - this is our eighth year - and we know what they expect, but we always want to bring something they’re not expecting. And it’s the same philosophy at the gallery: You take something you know and are comfortable with, and then show new things to make a statement and shock the system a bit. To give people the opportunity to encounter new art and hope they’ll be touched by it.

Do you find that Danish collectors in particular travel to fairs around the world?

Yes, we see a lot of them. Danish collectors are small-scale collectors, not like the ones from New York, who are big-scale. Life in Scandinavia compared to life here is different; it’s all relative. But Danish collectors are some of the most active. We love to travel and so do they. So, if they’re invited someplace they will come!

What is H A P P E N I N G next?

We’re doing something we’re really looking forward to with our next project. We have at the gallery the estate of Poul Gernes, a Danish artist. We did a solo show of his work at the last Miami Basel fair. He died in 1996, and he would’ve been ninety years old this year. So for our next show we’ve invited artists who have had a relationship with him or his work to bring a piece of art in celebration of Gernes’ birthday. We’re taking works from his estate and hanging beside them new works by international artists. We don’t want to celebrate Gernes with the work of Danish artists; we’ll do it with artists from outside Denmark to give it a global context. I can’t give you specific names yet, but it’s a good group! The show will open in April of this year.

Jannis Kounellis - New Works is currently on view at the gallery in Copenhagen through April 11, and
Georg Baselitz - New Works through 18 April.