Many years ago I found a poster in the basement of my childhood home. I fell in love - completely - with the clean, simple lines, the colours... It was my grandfather's old poster and my father said I could take it with me to my beloved home in Vesterbro, Copenhagen. Up on my walls it went - and it's been hanging there ever since. The poster was Ib Antoni's iconic illustration of the world-famous circus clown, Charlie Rivel - designed for Cirkus Schumann.
Many years later - when I was contacted by Mikael Hauberg and Anton Antoni, and was asked if I wanted to start a collaboration with them, I had absolutely no doubt. Of course I would - and it's been such an honor to be allowed to work with Antoni's works.
And the collaboration continued and ended up becoming a permanent job and an absolutely marvellous adventure.
Antoni has left behind such beautiful works - and so many works. And with Mikael Hauberg, I reviewed, organized, photographed and digitized them, so that now there is an "Antoni archive".
And on the background of this bank of knowledge and works, the book The Man who drew Denmark was born. Sara Alfort became the author who undertook the great task; writing about Antoni as a person, as an artist - and telling the story of the time he lived in. Here you can you see a short video about the process.
Together with Mikael Hauberg, I was the project manager of the book - and we were responsible for the selection of the works, the lay-out of the book, and were also "internal" editors, as we were the ones who, at the time, were most familiar with the Antoni material. The Man who drew Denmark was launched at the National Gallery of Denmark in 2021 and is available in both Danish and English. You can see a slightly longer film about Antoni here, filmed by the awesome guys at Højtbelagt TV, and organized by me.
And the book brought with it a new adventure; the collaboration with the Museum of Copenhagen and their exhibition "When Copenhagen Became Wonderful" - an exhibition about Antoni and the times he lived in. In this collaboration I have been an "Antoni specialist" and together with Mikael Hauberg , I have curated a selection of works, articles, photographs and objects, so that the amount of Antoni material became more palatable for the Museum of Copenhagen to proceed with. And who knows what Antoni's adventure awaits ahead?
