More modern than ever

The fog is low over Lemvig Harbor this afternoon, as a soft veil between land and water.

Inside the Museum of Religious Art, it is one other landscape that unfolds:

The fog is low over Lemvig Harbor this afternoon, as a soft veil between land and water.

Inside the Museum of Religious Art, it is one other landscape that unfolds:

Greenlandic drum dancers in bluish shadows, pastel-coloured mountains, stories from a people who both know the rhythm of the sea and storms of the mind.

In the middle of it all hangs a small figurative work, where a man plunges toward the ground from his kayak — The old bachelor who wanted to fly by to imitate the women's incantation, but forgot the words and fell.

Hans Lynge often used this myth as a warning: You must do not copy others blindly. You can be inspired, yes, but without losing himself. That was true in his time — and it is perhaps even more true today.

That is why the exhibition “Hans Lynge – Passion is there to" awakens something in the audience: a feeling that Lynge's art is not only tells about Greenland, but about cultural self-respect, responsibility and identity.

Beware of copies of "The Old Bachelor"

- Hans Lynge is a completely unusual figure, says Christine Løventoft-Naur, head of the Museum of Religious Art and former head of Sisimiut and Kangerlussuaq Museum, and continues:

- He was a visual artist, writer, playwright and politician – and he used all these voices to understand and influence his contemporaries. That is precisely what makes him so modern today.

According to the museum director, he worked interdisciplinary long before the word existed in our language.

- He saw no boundaries between art, society and identity, and he used his creativity as a tool to bring about change. It is one way of thinking that we recognize to a great extent in our own time.

Løventoft-Naur emphasizes that Lynge grew up in a time when where Greenlandic culture was under pressure. It was a period when Danish norms and institutions set the agenda, and how many traditional practices – from drum dance to storytelling culture – were either discouraged, marginalized or completely prohibited. The Greenlandic language was increasingly pushed into school, and the Inuit way of life was often seen as something to move away from from to become "modern". It was in this cross-pressure between assimilation and cultural pride that Lynge shaped its identity - and which later came to characterize both his art and his political voice.

At home he spoke Greenlandic, and later at the seminary — he learned Danish, and it was precisely the double linguistic starting point that shaped him.

- He had a nuanced view, especially on the relationship between Danes and Greenlanders, she says and elaborates:

- He criticized the inequality and the Danishness in it Greenlandic society, but he was not against Danish culture. He was against it unconscious imitation.

Here she again refers to the old myth, The Old Bachelor, front page of the exhibition catalogue.

- This is exactly what the myth is about: You must not believe, you can fly just because you copy the song. You have to know your own culture — it is the foundation. But you also want to be inspired. It is one hypermodern thoughts.

Lynge gave the myths status

When Lynge started depicting Greenlandic myths and legends in 1960s, it was far from common. Drum dancing was condemned. Inuit culture was marginalized. Yet he insisted on giving it space.

- He lifted the myths into a modern visual art, explains Løventoft-Naur.

- It was a form of cultural restoration. A little like romanticism and Grundtvig in Denmark: You look back to understand what you are rounded off.

The figurative idiom — which for a period was considered old-fashioned on the artistic parnas — was a conscious choice at Lynge. He painted everything from blue-toned landscapes to legendary figures with an almost French neo-impressionist inspiration, drawn from his study trip to Paris. The colors vibrates, and the calmness of the motifs hides a strong vision of society.

Criticism of the colonial power was new

The art history-educated museum manager talks about one of Lynge's play, "Juletravlhed", where he criticizes both Danes traders and individual Greenlanders receive criticism.

- Hans Lynge took hold of both places, she states and elaborates:

- He criticized the colonial power - but also social problems in Greenlandic society, such as alcoholism. It was very brave The 1930s. The colonial government was not used to criticism, and this had consequences for it him. He was dismissed as an interpreter.

Still, his sharp, nuanced voice made him popular and led him into South Greenland's national council, where he advocated education, cultural self-respect and responsibility.

- He said: 'We must be able to manage ourselves.' Not in isolation, but by building on our own roots — and again: not to maintain the past, but to understand it, she says.

In the catalog you will find a quote that frames his view man and society:

"You have to learn from your mistakes yourself." Implied: If one make a mistake, you have to correct it yourself. You shouldn't get others to do it.

- Basically, he believed that the future is based on responsibility, education and honest knowledge of the past. Not on nostalgia, but on self-awareness.

Although Hans Lynge died in 1988 and was positive in his time to the Commonwealth, according to the museum director, she emphasizes that for that reason you cannot drag him directly into the present independence debate. She says:

- That would be abusing him. I spoke to his widow, Inge Lynge, and she mentioned, among other things, that no one can say where he would stand day. But we know where he stood then - and there he was both brave and nuanced and ready.

Still, she experiences a strong topicality in his work. According to her, there was something incredibly fresh about his voice. Finally she sums up his artistic personality:

- He was sharp, but never shrill. Critical, but never simplistic. It is a tone that all societies could use more of today.