SMK - Statens Museum for Kunst

We believe that our upcoming digital service will create an inclusive, personal and altogether useful companion for the SMK guest. But only if we get things exactly right.

For years, at SMK, we’ve almost solely kept our eyes on the open web.

Image generated from Constantin Hansen, Prometheus Moulding Man from Clay, 1845, SMK

Imagine owning a unique artwork rooted in Danish cultural heritage the moment you are born and assigned a social security number. Does that sound far-fetched? Well, it’s absolutely possible! In this guest post by Stig Møller Hansen, a Senior Associate Professor at The Danish School of Media and Journalism, he lets us in on a highly surprising and thoughtprovoking way of using SMK Open.

Check out an innovative AR filter #ZEROWASTECULTURE based on art from public domain now available on Instagram

Open Culture to the Rescue!

The Artist’s Wife (Périe) Reading, Albert Bartholomé, 1883, Metropolitan Museum of Art (the US)

Five artists represented in the collection of SMK — Statens Museum for Kunst have entered the Public Domain as of 1 January 2020. That calls for a celebration — but it also opens our eyes to some noticeable gaps in our digitised collection.

Intérieur by Emile Othon Friesz, 1914, now available for free download in the SMK collection open.smk.dk/artwork/image/KMSr49

On 29 November 2019 we’re finally, proudly, and with some trepidation launching SMK’s brand new online collection. Call it SMK Open.

Or Why They Put Art in Artificial Intelligence…

Nam June Paik’s Niels Bohr Robot (1996) in the SMK sculpture street

Jon Beck from Scan The World, ready to get to work with the Dying Gaul (c. 241–197 BC), one of the 3,000 plaster casts in the SMK collection.

In June, we had the great pleasure and fortune of a two week visit by Jon Beck and his handscanner! Jon is a volunteer and activist at Scan The World, a community-driven endeavour to scan and share the world’s three-dimensional cultural heritage. SMK Open warmly welcomed his expertise and help to start setting our sculpture collection free in 3D online.

SMK.DK: On 15 August 2018 SMK gets a new website. Here are some of our modest thoughts behind it.

As of this day you are invited to explore SMK highlights at an unprecedented level of detail. We’ve been working with the good people of Madpixel [link no longer active] to squeeze every little pixel of 11 SMK masterworks into the free SMK Second Canvas app.