Henry Heerup was a Danish painter, graphic artist and sculptor born in 1907 in the city of Frederiksberg. He was admitted to the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in 1926 and graduated in 1932. He studied painting under Axel Jørgensen and Einar Nielsen, and also studied sculpture under Einar Utzon-Frank.

     During the 1930s he developed his "trash sculptures." He exhibited together with Ejler Bille at the abstract/ surrealist group Linien exhibition in 1934. During the 1940s he became a member of "Corner and Høst" and exhibited with the group. In 1949 he joined the international artist group COBRA and participated in many of their exhibitions.

     He developed an international reputation exhibiting across Europe and North America. From 1946 until his death in 1993, he maintained a studio and gallery on Kamstrupvej in Rødovre. Heerup was an extremely versatile artist. His works of art included paintings, lithographs, stone sculptures, linoleum cuts and drawings as well as objects which he composed from scrap. For his sculptures, Heerup used granite, calling it, "the hard-boiled egg of nature," emphasizing that there was always something hidden inside of the hard rock. He said, “The thing is that you get something forgiving from the stone, and then you pursue the forms... Of a lumpy rock you do not make a dancer, but it may be a bear.”

    Heerup was awarded the Thorvaldsen Medal in 1967, and was appointed a Knight of the Order of the Dannebrog in 1968. He also received the Storm, P. Grant, and NL Stevns Grants. In 1967 the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art arranged a major retrospective of Heerup's art at the time of his 60th birthday.

     After Heerup's death, his widow donated their estate to Rødovre Municipality in 1995. Later the Heerup Museum was designed by the architect Bernd Kjelland as an extension to the old farm Rødovregaard in Rødovre. The mainstay of the museum is a donation of Heerup's works.

     Exhibitions of Heerup's works have been held at the Kunsternes House in Oslo 1958, at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in 1967, at Den Frie Exhibition Building of Contemporary Art in 1987, the ARKEN Museum of Modern Art 2003, Arizona State University Art Museum in 2003, and the Brussels Royal Museum of Fine Arts Belgium from 2008−2009.

     The artist is represented in these public institutions:

• NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale

• Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam

• Museum of Modern Art in New York

• The Department of Fine Arts at the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh

• The Carl-Henning Pedersen & Else Alfelt Museum

• The Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo

• The Carnegie Museum of Art

• The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts

• The Workers' Museum

• AROS - Aarhus Art Museum

• Bornholm Art Museum

• BRANDTS - (Painting) Museum of Art & Visual Culture

• Esbjerg Art Museum

• Fuglsang Art Museum

• HEART Herning Museum of Contemporary Art

• Heerup Museum

• Holstebro Art Museum

• The Kastrupgård collection

• ARTS Museum of Modern Art Aalborg

• KØS Museum of Art in the Public Space

• Louisiana Museum of Modern Art

• Museum Jorn, Salling Museum (Skive Museum)

• Museum Sønderjylland (Brundlund Castle Art Museum)

• New Carlsberg Glyptotek

• Randers Art Museum

• Ribe Art Museum

• Statens Museum for Kunst (National Gallery of Denmark)

• The Guide Museums (Art)

• Vendsyssel Art Museum