Dutch barogue, (Painting) Anthony van Dyck. Portrait of a Lady (1638-1640), 17th century

COPENHAGEN.- Statens Museum for Kunst presents Frames. State of the Art, on view 8 March – 7 September 2008. The frame has always served as an intermediary between the painting and the room in which it finds itself. It is a marker, reliably pointing out where everyday life stops and art begins. In addition to its practical functions, protecting and stabilising the painting, the frame also heightens awareness of the painting itself and acts as a barrier, blocking of the visual noise around it. The frame calls for attention, creates focus, and invites reflection.

The frame has always seemed fated to be appreciated for its function rather than for high visibility. Thus, it is small wonder that up until now, it has led a quiet life on the peripheries of not just the painting itself, but also of art history in general. The exhibition at Statens Museum for Kunst tell the much-overlooked tale of the sheer variety of the picture frame, which comes in myriad styles, often in themselves picture-perfect in their beauty. A tale of an art form which repeatedly bests itself with grand fluted columns, tympana, and sgrafitto, with elaborate decorative carvings created using everything from glowingly dark ebony to the more mundane pinewood, and with an almost alchemical affinity for gilding in all its many forms.

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Artist-designed frame by harald Slott-Møller, (Painting) Harald Slott-Møller. Danish Landscape (1891), 1891