During the First World War the Danish capital
of Copenhagen witnessed a sudden boom of modernist
activity within the art scene. Sheltered by the country’s
neutrality and supported by a significant economic
upturn in certain sectors of society, the art market
flourished, and the city boasted a great number
of exhibitions and other manifestations of modernist
art and aesthetics. The modernist breakthrough during
WWI constitutes a well-documented and canonized
event in Danish art historiography and yet the relation
between the two phenomena has never been subject
to a closer analysis. The following article investigates
the impacts of the war on the artistic culture of early
Danish modernism by focusing on the specific character
of Danish neutrality and its consequences for artistic
production and the critical reception of art in the period.