Painter and sculptor Henning Nielsen 1921 - 1997.

Henning Nielsen, who lived from 1921-1997, started his education at the School of Art and Design as a very young man. The Hjort Hansen Foundation supported his education – they had seen his talent in an oil-painting he did when he was 12 years old. He finished his education in the summer of 1939. The war stopped his career as a painter and illustrator ... during the war he was a lift
attendant and a farmer.

HN made his debut at the age of 23 as a sculptor in “Kunstnernes Efterudstilling”, Copenhagen, in 1944.
He took part in a series of exhibitions there - as a painter, sculptor and textile-printer.
In 1947 he started his own textile printing factory, which became his trade until 1954.
He was a co-founder of a group of artists – “Linien II” – in 1947. But the group distanced itself from the Cobra-painters – and HN preferred broadness in the Danish art – so he left the group.
HM exhibited his works in the association “Kilen”, in “Den Frie” in the years 1949-53.

In 1954 he held a separate exhibition in “Trefoldigheden”. In this period HN started a new silk printing firm. HN and other painters from “Linien” used his firm to produce a series of serigraphics that was exhibited in “Trefoldigheden” under the name: “Young Danish Graphics”.
In these years HN also used other expressions – he worked with ceramics, with patterns for industrial design - material and wallpaper.
He was part of the “Linien III” and was founder of “The Flexible” in 1964.

HN then had a long break in his artistic work until 1968. He sold his firm in Copenhagen and moved into the countryside near Sorø, where he started a new serigraphic firm. He developed some sublime methods in the serigraphic field, and his workshops were sought by many artists.

HN disliked very much what he called “the dogs fight” in the Danish world of art – he preferred to work with his sculptures and paintings “instead of spending time on art politics and making up myths”. He joined the BKF (the association for artists) – where he found a forum that worked on making the problems for artists visible.
In 1981 HN took part in the last exhibition, “The Contrasts”, arranged by BFK. Throughout the eighties HN had separate exhibitions in different cities and art associations in Denmark. In 1988 he was part of “Linien II” in “Statens Museum of Art”.

After that HN took a long break from exhibiting his works – in this period he was busy making new sculptures. In 1996 he chose to show his works – he was part of the exhibition “The Red Thread” in Slagelse, and he also showed some of his new sculptures in Knabstrup Kulturfabrik. That year HN became artist of the year in West Zealand. In connection with the nomination he had a great exhibition in the county hall of West Zealand, where he showed a part of his extensive production of paintings and sculptures.