Can I use these images?

Many are in the public domain and SMK marks them as such, but the licence varies by work. Check the individual record at the museum before reusing anything.

Why are the titles in Danish?

Because that is the catalogue language. The museum records its own works in its own language, and this shows the record as it exists rather than a machine translation of it.

Yes. It comes from SMK's open collection API, key-free. Nothing is invented or simulated, and if the source cannot be reached the saver reports that instead of drawing something plausible.

Does it cost anything or need an account?

No. Every screensaver here is free, runs in the browser and needs no sign-up. This one uses a public API that requires no key.

What does the open licence usually allow?

SMK releases its metadata under CC0 and marks works whose copyright has expired with the Public Domain Mark. Some images carry other licences, so check the terms for a specific work before reusing it.

Are all works in the collection shown?

No. Only works with a digital record are available through the API, and the quality of the records and photographs varies from work to work.

The Danish Gallery Screensaver

The Danish Gallery screensaver shows artworks from SMK, Denmark's national gallery, one at a time with the title, artist, date and technique as catalogued. It runs in the browser with nothing to install; press ESC to exit.

How the The Danish Gallery screensaver works

The saver reads SMK's open collection API, key-free.

No account and no key: the request goes straight from your browser, or from this site's own refreshed copy of the feed where the source does not permit browser access.

Values are drawn on a canvas that resizes with the window, so it works on a laptop or a wall display.

If the source is unreachable the saver says so on screen rather than showing stale numbers as though they were current.

SMK, Denmark's national gallery, and its open collection

SMK, Statens Museum for Kunst, is Denmark’s national gallery, located in Copenhagen. Its collection spans several centuries of art, and the museum offers programmatic access to its collection data through an open API. SMK Open, its online collection, is built on that same API, and records are available for roughly 100,000 digitally registered artworks.

A catalogue record typically includes the title, the artist, a date, the kind of object and an image where one exists. SMK releases the metadata, and the metadata for all images and 3D scans, under CC0. Works whose copyright has expired are marked with the Public Domain Mark, while some images carry other licences such as CC BY-SA 4.0, so reuse terms differ from one work to the next.

Not everything in a museum is on public view at any one time, so the display is a window onto the digitised catalogue, not the walls of the building. Attribution can change as scholarship advances, so a work labelled as by one hand today may be reattributed later, and colour in digital reproductions depends on the photography and your screen.

A worked example

Each work fills the screen with its caption beneath: title, artist, period and technique. SMK was among the first national museums to publish its collection openly with images and no key, and roughly fifty thousand works carry a public image. Titles are shown in Danish as catalogued — translating them would mean inventing text the museum did not write.

Settings & tips

Accent and Background recolour the display without changing the data.
Add it to a Multi-view grid to watch it alongside other live savers.
Press ESC at any time to leave fullscreen.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use these images?: Many are in the public domain and SMK marks them as such, but the licence varies by work. Check the individual record at the museum before reusing anything.
Why are the titles in Danish?: Because that is the catalogue language. The museum records its own works in its own language, and this shows the record as it exists rather than a machine translation of it.
Is this real data?: Yes. It comes from SMK's open collection API, key-free. Nothing is invented or simulated, and if the source cannot be reached the saver reports that instead of drawing something plausible.
Does it cost anything or need an account?: No. Every screensaver here is free, runs in the browser and needs no sign-up. This one uses a public API that requires no key.
What does the open licence usually allow?: SMK releases its metadata under CC0 and marks works whose copyright has expired with the Public Domain Mark. Some images carry other licences, so check the terms for a specific work before reusing it.
Are all works in the collection shown?: No. Only works with a digital record are available through the API, and the quality of the records and photographs varies from work to work.

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