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ASGER JORN Restless Rebe l

STATENS MUSEUM FOR KUNST

PRESTEL MUNICH · LONDON · NEW YORK 95530_asger jorn_SMK_q8_r2_Layout 29/01/14 11.3811.37 Page 2

ASGER JORN  RESTLESS REBEL NEW CARLSBERG FOUNDATION IS SUPPORTED BY C.L. DAVID FOUNDATION AND COLLECTION . JUNI FONDEN GEORGE JORCK AND EMMA JORCK FOUNDATION BECKETT FOUNDATION NOVO NORDISK FOUNDATION TOYOTA FOUNDATION GANGSTED FOUNDATION DANISH AGENCY FOR CULTURE 95530_asger jorn_SMK_q8__Layout 23/01/14 08.49 Page 3

ASGER JORN Restless Rebe l

CONCEPT DORTHE AAGESEN AND HELLE BRØNS

ARTICLES DORTHE AAGESEN RUTH BAUMEISTER HELLE BRØNS HAL FOSTER STEVEN HARRIS NIELS HENRIKSEN HENRIK HOLM KAREN KURCZYNSKI KLAUS MÜLLER*WILLE ROBERTO OHRT 95530_asger jorn_SMK_q8__Layout 23/01/14 08.49 Page 4

LENDERS

ANNE & LARS OLESEN,S COLLECTION AROS KUNSTMUSEUM BAYERISCHE STAATSGEMÄLDESAMMLUNGEN MÜNCHEN * PINAKOTHEK DER MODERNE BIRCH EYDE MØLLER FAMILY CANICA ART COLLECTION, OSLO CARL*HENNING PEDERSEN & ELSE ALFELTS MUSEUM, HERNING COBRA MUSEUM OF , AMSTELVEEN COLLECTION E. VAN ZUYLEN COLLECTION PIERRE & MICKY ALECHINSKY THE LIBRARY, COPENHAGEN DESIGNMUSEUM DANMARK, COPENHAGEN KUNSTMUSEUM FLUID ARCHIVES FÆNØ GODS HENIE ONSTAD KUNSTSENTER, HØVIKODDEN JENS OLESEN,S COLLECTION KAREN & FINN ERSKOVS SAMLING KUNSTEN MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, AALBORG KUNSTHALLE EMDEN KUNSTHALLE ZU KIEL LOUISIANA MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, HUMLEBÆK MONICA AND IB NYMARK HEGELUND MUSEO NACIONAL CENTRO DE ARTE REINA SOFÍA, MADRID MUSEUM BOIJMANS VAN BEUNINGEN, ROTTERDAM MUSEUM JORN, NIELS COLLECTION, BRUSSELS RANDERS KUNSTMUSEUM THE ROYAL LIBRARY, COPENHAGEN SILKEBORG BIBLIOTEKERNE S.M.A.K., STEDELIJK MUSEUM VOOR ACTUELE KUNST, GHENT SOLOMON R. GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM, NEW YORK STAATLICHE MUSEEN ZU BERLIN, KUPFERSTICHKABINETT STAATLICHE MUSEEN ZU BERLIN, NATIONALGALERIE STEDELIJK MUSEUM, AMSTERDAM TATE, LONDON TROELS JORN,S COLLECTION THE WORKERS, MUSEUM AND THE LABOUR MOVEMENT LIBRARY AND ARCHIVE

AND PRIVATE LENDERS WHO WISH TO REMAIN ANONYMOUS 95530_asger jorn_SMK_q8__Layout 23/01/14 09.0708.49 Page 5

CONTENTS

FOREWORD PETER NØRGAARD LARSEN

 [01] INTRODUCTION HELLE BRØNS AND DORTHE AAGESEN

 [02] ASGER JORN IN, ON AND ABOUT STEVEN HARRIS

 [03] ART FOR THE PEOPLE DORTHE AAGESEN

 [04] FROM WORD)PICTURES TO THE WILD ARCHITECTURE OF THE BOOK KLAUS MÜLLER*WILLE

  [05] HUMAN BEASTS HAL FOSTER

 [06] FOLK ART, SCIENCE FICTION AND THE MATTER OF PAINTING HELLE BRØNS

 [07] A THING FINISHED IS A THING DEAD RUTH BAUMEISTER

 [08] FIN DES MODIFICATIONS ROBERTO OHRT

 [09] AN ABSTRACT ART THAT DOES NOT BELIEVE IN ABSTRACTION KAREN KURCZYNSKI

 [10] VANDALIST REVIVAL: ASGER JORN+S ARCHAEOLOGY NIELS HENRIKSEN

 [11 ] POKING TONGUES HENRIK HOLM

 BIOGRAPHY ANNA VESTERGAARD JØRGENSEN

 WORKS IN THE EXHIBITION  BIBLIOGRAPHY  THE AUTHORS  PHOTO CREDITS   COLOPHON 95530_asger jorn_SMK_q8__Layout 23/01/14 09.07 Page 6 95530_asger jorn_SMK_q8__Layout 23/01/14 09.07 Page 7 95530_asger jorn_SMK_q8__Layout 23/01/14 09.0708.49 Page 8

FOREWORD

In recent decades, Asger Jorn’s art and thinking has generated renewed and growing interest in and abroad, and his central role within European post-war art is becoming firmly established. The centenary of Jorn’s birth on 3 March 2014 is the occasion prompting the SMK and Museum Jorn in Silkeborg to commemorate the artist by presenting two major ex - hibitions and two books. For both museums, the intentions reach much further than simply to celebrate Jorn as a major figure in Danish art and culture. The objective is to appraise his art in a nuanced manner, based on the most recent art historical research, and to create a solid basis for reassessing his importance as a major figure within 20 th century art history. In its capacity as the National Gallery of Denmark, the SMK puts emphasis on arranging large-scale monographic exhibitions featuring important artists in Danish art his tory. In recent years, the museum has shown special exhibitions that highlight artists such as Laurits Andersen Ring, Nicolai Abildgaard, and Wilhelm Freddie. But apart from a relatively small-scale exhibition of Jorn’s prints shown at the Royal Collection of Graphic Arts in 1976, this event marks the first time that the SMK truly engages with Jorn’s art. His anniversary provides a welcome occasion to finally, through this major, research-based exhi - bition and book project, put Jorn on the agenda, presenting his work on an expansive scale. Right from the outset, it was obvious that the exhibition could not be realised without entering into close interplay with Museum Jorn, which possesses a large collection of Jorn’s works, extensive archives, and considerable expert insights. The co-operation between the two museums led to the planning of two closely co-ordinated exhibitions and books, each of which adopts its own distinctive perspective as it unfolds significant aspects of the artist’s body of work. Both approaches mark a break away from a traditional, biographically founded perception of Jorn’s work and the prevailing focus on painting that has characterised past exhibitions. While the SMK presents Jorn’s art in a monographic retrospective that includes all facets of his artistic production, including Jorn’s work as a theorist, Museum Jorn shows a dialogical exhibition that presents Jorn’s art alongside works by other artists who served Jorn as sources of inspiration and collaborative partners. The duality between the individual and the collective is a central aspect of Jorn’s artistic project. On the one hand, his art is based on the personal mode of expression that he believed was fundamental to human ex - perience, while on the other hand, it is founded on social co-operation, which held an equally important position within his overall endeavour. Thus, the two exhibitions take their point of departure in different, but equally fundamental principles at play in Jorn’s work, and they can be regarded as presentations that complement and supplement each other, combining to outline a more complete picture of Jorn’s art than a single exhibition could. Any project of this magnitude requires the help and engagement of many individuals and institutions. First of all, we at the SMK wish to thank our colleagues at Museum Jorn for 95530_asger jorn_SMK_q8__Layoutjorn_SMK_q8_r1_Layout 23/01/14 28/01/14 09.07 10.36 Page Page 9 9

many months of intense sparring, particularly the museum’s Director Jacob Thage, Curator Karen Friis, Guest Curator Karen Kurczynski, and others from the museum staff who have helped us with matters big and small, including Lars Bay, Lars Hamann, Teresa Østergaard Ped ersen, and Elisabeth Wildt. We also wish to extend our warm thanks to the artist’s son Troels Jorn for his great support and interest throughout the preparatory process. Thanks are also due to the authors presented in the present book; several of them offered important input in the ongoing discussions while the exhibition was still under development, and the new thoughts and ideas presented in their pioneering texts add gravitas and nuance to this project. At the SMK, the overall curatorial and research responsibility for the project resided with Curator and Senior Researcher Dorthe Aagesen, ably assisted by PhD Fellow Helle Brøns. The exhibition itself was created in close co-operation with the exhibition architect Pernille Jensen, while the multi-faceted presentation and educational materials were entrusted to Mathilde Schytz Marvit and Louise Springborg. Anna Vestergaard Jørgensen provided in - valu able assistance throughout the preparation of the exhibition, presentation materials, and publication. Amongst the many people who have assisted us in various ways we also wish to give our special thanks to: Troels Andersen, Ole Arent, Tracey Bashkoff, Anette Birch, Luca Bochicchio, Lene Borch, Hilde de Bruijn, Claus Carstensen, Tom Christoffersen, Danilo Demi, Steinar Gjessing, Axel Heil, Per Hovdenakk, Jacqueline de Jong, Anders Kold, Peter Laugesen, Marie-José van de Loo, Anna von Lowzow, Giovanni and Piero Poggi, Niels Raben, Birger Raben-Skov, Rebecca Rabinow, Dominique Radrizzani, Bart Rutten, Knut Stene-Johansen, Christian Vind, Katja Weitering, Sylvie Wuhrmann, and Lis Zwick. Ultimately, the success of any exhibition is determined by the loans it can attract. We wish to thank the many museums and art collectors in Denmark, Belgium, Brazil, France, Ger many, Italy, the , Norway, Switzerland, Spain, the UK, and the USA who have gen erously made their works available to the exhibition. One last crucial factor for the realisation of the exhibition and book project is the monetary support provided by enterprises and foundations. First of all, we wish to direct our warmest thanks to the Augustinus Foundation, which is the main sponsor of the exhi - bition. We also wish to thank the Novo Nordisk Foundation, the New Carlsberg Foundation, the Danish Agency for Culture, the C.L. David Foundation and Collection, 15. Juni Fonden, George Jorck and Emma Jorck Foundation, the Beckett Foundation, the Toyota Foundation, and the Gangsted Foundation, all of which have helped enable us to translate our many ambitions and wishes into reality.

Peter Nørgaard Larsen Head of Collections and Research 95530_asger jorn_SMK_q8__Layout 23/01/14 09.07 Page 10 95530_asger jorn_SMK_q8__Layout 23/01/14 09.07 Page 11 95530_asger jorn_SMK_q8__Layout 23/01/14 09.0708.49 Page 12

[0 1] IT HAS NEVER INTERESTED ME TO GO, UNLESS I COULD GO TO THE EXTREMES

INTRODUCTION “We need a Ministry of Disturbance, a regulated source of annoyance, a destroyer of routine, an underminer of complacency, or, in other words, a ministry of aesthetic activity.” 1 HELLE BRØNS AND DORTHE AAGESEN Statements such as this are typical of Jorn in every way. It is startling, surprising, and humorously worded, but at the same time Jorn is being perfectly serious. To Jorn, art was a question of using creativity to interact with and intervene in the world. Art should challenge existing notions and norms, thereby creating opportunities for understanding the world in new ways. Ever since Jorn became a member of the Danish Communist Party as a young man and up until his death forty years later, he defended a view of art that posited art as entirely inseparable from social life. When painting, writing, weaving, and sculpting, it was all part of his endeavours at opening up the viewer’s eye to alternative worldviews, thereby paving the way for social change. He did not, however, regard the artist as a prophet-like leader. To believe that art could point the way ahead directly would correspond to, as he said, “requiring the manufac - ture of only those explosives that, despite being of extreme strength, do no harm to anyone.” 2 The artist must detonate his sensuous picture-bombs without having to consider whether they are good or evil, and without thinking of the dangers inherent in any new image (or indeed worldview).

Exhibition and book This fundamental view of art as a medium for actively engaging with reality will be accen - tuated in this book and the exhibition it accompanies. The exercise is not a simple one. For Jorn’s concept of “reality” is not limited to historical events or to the political scene and culture as it appeared throughout his four decades as an active artist. To him “reality” could equally well be found in the realms of art, philosophy, and science – or within raw matter itself. Thus, his work also touches on and reaches out to movements that pervaded the same four dec- ades’ Western – particularly European – art, as well as towards theories emerging within other fields of study such as archaeology, philosophy, political theory, and science; towards art his- tory in the widest sense of the term, encompassing prehistoric art and contemporary popular culture; and also quite simply involves a practical, tactile, and sensuous exploration of matter, of the stuff and substance of the artworks themselves. In this sense, Jorn’s art employs several different and interwoven planes of reality. What is more, the project seems to be constantly 95530_asger jorn_SMK_q8__Layout 23/01/14 09.0708.49 Page 13



expanding in new directions. As the years progressed, it became increasingly obvious that Jorn’s ambition was nothing less than all-encompassing: It was about developing a worldview, a process that also saw him challenging numerous existing interpretations. Just as Jorn’s body of work addresses many different themes, his artistic production is equally diverse in nature. His experiments with different media – including drawing, graph - ic art, weaving, ceramics, collage, and painting – all helped shape his view of art. The book medium also came to be of great importance to him. Jorn worked innovatively with the book as an artistic medium from the 1930s, when he created his first artists’ books, onwards to his large-scale book project 10,000 Years of Nordic Folk Art (the mammoth undertaking, only partially realised, that kept Jorn engrossed throughout the last decade of his life). Books became a platform enabling him to express his thoughts and theories about subjects that interested him. Supplemented by a steady stream of articles in newspapers, magazines, and journals, they add an insisting and extensive textual dimension to his work. Our exhibition and book project presents the diversity of Jorn’s work as a distinctive feature of the overall whole. The objective is to provide an image of Jorn’s art in all its com - plexity by specifically focusing on his multi-faceted approach, which combines humorous and expressive paintings with philosophical and political texts, material experiments with avant-garde strategies, and artistic insight with a social outlook. Complexity is an ever-present underlying premise when working with Jorn’s art. It is also quite typical that his artworks are never “resolved”; they do not lend themselves to a single, uniform interpretation; rather, they unfold themselves precisely by virtue of their ambiguity. This is particularly evident in the titles, which are often poetic, paradoxical, or humorous. “I believe that the value of a picture rests on the opportunities it offers for linking each individual picture to numerous interpretations […] That is why I use titles in a very ca s- ual manner, always taking care to never become too explicit,” said Jorn in 1972. 3 The meanings provided by the titles interact with the visual statements made by the works themselves, creating scope for new layers of interpretation in a dizzying game of multiple meanings on several levels. Jorn also changed effortlessly from one language to the next; for most of his adult life he moved between several European localities and let the language spo ken in the region he currently happened to occupy govern the title of the works created there. Ambiguity was a central artistic strategy that invites active participation from the viewer. Jorn aimed to break down the barrier separating the artist’s creative work and the viewer’s pas sive appropriation, allowing the viewer’s own creativity to enter the equation. Paradoxes, contrasts, ambiguities, or, to use a more Jorn-esque turn of phrase, the “dialectic interplay” between many different dimensions are at the core of his art. This be - comes even clearer if you try to categorise Jorn and his work. For to which camp did he ac - tually belong? His art unites several, sometimes conflicting positions within the art scene of his day. On the one hand, he was instrumental in the development of post-war abstract painting, but at the same time he was one of the founders of the politically active Situation- ist movement which rejected painting, preferring instead to let art unfold itself within the realm of lived life through constructed “situations”. He criticised his fellow artists in Cobra 95530_asger jorn_SMK_q8__Layout 23/01/14 09.0708.49 Page 14

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for being more interested in artistic style than in the political potential of art, but on the other hand he left the Situationists when political objectives were given priority over artistic interests. He believed that images were of greater and more fundamental importance than words, but he himself produced a wealth of texts. He advocated individual expression, but was also fond of working collectively. He was against institutionalisation, but founded his own museum. Jorn cannot be summed up by a single formula, and his work evades categor- isation – both facts that have proven quite a headache for art historians. For what does one do with an artist who held a key position, but was simultaneously with and against the groupings of which he was part, insisting on reconciling the irreconcilable?

Jorn in art history This problem is probably part of the explanation why most art historical treatments of Jorn’s art have long tended to leave out important aspects of his endeavours. Until quite recently, the general perception of his art centred primarily on the expressive and painterly aspect of his production. Most literature presents him as a modernist painter – one who occasion- ally ventured out into avant-garde experiments. 4 Jorn’s texts were long deemed unscientific and confused, without relevance to our understanding of his visual art. Only from the mid- 1990s onwards have Jorn’s theoretical writings been the object of serious analysis. 5 Even so, yet another decade would pass before earnest attempts were made at con - sidering Jorn’s artistic and theoretical work simultaneously, and at examining his role within the various European avant-garde groups with which he was associated. Jorn’s role within the politically active Situationist movement has been of particular interest in Danish and [01.1] international studies in the last decade. 6 Those studies have also prompted the questions Frem. Marxistisk maanedshefte for politik, økonomi, about his political commitment to emerge and grow steadily more pressing. Generally speak- kultur (Forward. The Marxist Monthly on Politics, Economics, Culture ). Copenhagen Dec. 1933, vol. 2, ing, however, the reception of Jorn is still dominated by an interest in either the evolution no. 3 of his expressive painting or the political and theoretical aspect of his work. This inherent tension within interpretations of Jorn’s art – and within the oeuvre itself, one might claim – is an inescapable issue when studying Jorn’s universe today. This book considers both aspects of Jorn’s work and seeks to elucidate the relation- ship between Jorn’s painterly and theoretical project, all while considering the contrasts in - herent in his work as aspects of a deliberate artistic strategy. We seek to add new nuances to the general perception of Jorn as a purely modernist painter, foregrounding other, more avant-garde aspects of his oeuvre – something which Jorn, with customary ambivalence, also spoke about himself: “I’ve always swiftly distanced myself from those who parade around with the medal of the avant-garde on their chests, yet it has never interested me to go, unless I could go to the extremes.” 7

Political beginnings In order to outline the contours of Jorn’s political and social engagement, thereby establish- ing a framework for his artistic project – which is our intention in what follows – one must delve all the way back to the early 1930s. Jorn presumably became a member of the Danish 95530_asger jorn_SMK_q8__Layout 23/01/14 09.0808.49 Page 15

[0 1] INTRODUCTION 

[01.2] Christmas Carols (Julens salmer) · 1933 · Linocut Museum Jorn, Silkeborg a: Golden light of morning bright, is shed upon my labour (Morgenstund har Guld i Mund vi til vort Arbejd ile), 73 x 79 mm · b: The Law it is a sacred call; showing us our Lord and Saviour (Loven er et helligt Bud viser os vor Gud alene), 101 x 78 mm · c: Repentance and prayer (Anger og Bøn), 73 x 64 mm · d: But Our Father from on high, He is living! (Men vor Fader i det Høje, han lever!), 73 x 80 mm · e: Praise to the Lord, who o’er all things so wondrously reigneth (Lov dog den Herre som alting saa herligt regerer), 101 x 78 mm f: Desist from your grief and lamenting. Let the Word of God bring you comfort (Med Sørgen og Klagen hold maade Guds Ord lad jer trøste og raade), 71 x 75 mm

d f

c

b

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 HELLE BRØNS AND DORTHE AAGESEN

[01.3] Communist Party around 1930. 8 The graphic series Christmas Carols (Julens salmer ) from Portrait of Christian Christenen. Figure Study 1933 is his earliest artwork to testify to his political position. As Jorn himself put it, the 1933 · Oil on canvas · 55.5 x 47.5 cm · Museum Jorn, Silkeborg objective of this series was to challenge, by means of satire, “Christian smugness”. 9 The pic - tures combine existing carols and hymns with gloomy images of life on the lower rungs of society, testifying to a well-developed social awareness on the part of the young artist – he was barely 20 at the time – and to a strongly critical approach to society’s ruling institutions, particularly as far as church authorities were concerned. Characteristic features include the black humour and the critical bite exposing the hypocrisy amongst the ruling classes while he himself clearly shows his solidarity with the oppressed. As an illustration to the stanza “Golden light of morning bright, is shed upon my labour”, we find dejected workers dragging themselves off to the factory while the hideous visage of capitalism faces us [01.2a ]. “But Our Father from on high, He is living!” is the title of another work showing a well-nourished and vibrant God in Heaven hovering above a 95530_asger jorn_SMK_q8__Layout 23/01/14 09.0808.49 Page 17

[0 1] INTRODUCTION 

graveyard full of crosses as far as the eye can see. [01.2d ]. The scenes were created as linocuts in a coarse, expressive style reminiscent of the German Expressionism of preceding decades; a style that was one of the starting points for Jorn’s early ventures into art and a legacy to which he returned and sought to appropriate in the wake of World War II. 10 In 1933, a selection of 16 out of the total of 24 linocuts were printed in the small Com - munist journal Frem (Forward ) under the heading “Blasfemiske Julesalmer” (“Blasphemous Carols”) [01.1 ]. The journal, which was published during the period 1932-35, was edited by the writer and art historian Rudolf Broby-Johansen, who was one of the strongest cultural personalities of the Danish left wing and famous for his unorthodox approach that was op - posed to e.g. established academia. 11 When Jorn and Broby met in the early 1930s, Broby was busily formulating his materialistic view of art. Broby’s politically engaged, anti-academic methods must have served as an inspiration for Jorn, and Broby’s great interest in popular cul - ture, particularly Nordic popular culture from church murals to contemporary everyday culture, forms a crucial backdrop to Jorn’s artistic project as it evolved in the decade that followed. Jorn had a remarkable ability to establish contact with people who could benefit his case in various ways. He banged down the doors of key intellectuals, writers, and other major figures of the political left wing of the 1930s. This is not just true of Broby-Johansen, but also of the literary critic Harald Rue, who belonged to the same circle, and of the chair - man of The Student’s Society (Studentersamfundet) Jørgen Neergård. Through the latter, Jorn also met the psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich, who went into exile in Denmark for some months in 1933. Jorn drew inspiration from the people with whom he came into touch and was eminently skilled at paving the way for realising his ideas. His introduction to the political scene was, however, primarily effected through the Syndicalist leader Christian Christensen, who lived in the village of Sejs outside of Silkeborg when Jorn was young. Jorn himself has stated that Christensen became a kind of father fig- ure who imprinted him with intellectual and spiritual ballast that would become the main foundation of his life. Christensen was a radical figure who had been politically active on the left wing since the turn of the century, initially with the Social Democrats, then with the Syndicalist Association (Syndikalistisk Forbund), and, from the early 1920s onwards, in the Danish Communist Party whose newspaper, Arbejderbladet , he also edited for a brief time. In the 1930s, he was still active as a debater and agitator. Christensen was, then, the perfect role model for how to be a socially engaged citizen; famed for his undogmatic ap - proach to ideologies, and sufficiently uncompromising and opposed to authorities to have spent time in jail in 1918-20 for agitation in favour of overthrowing the state. 12 Christian Christensen introduced Jorn to Marxism and admonished him about the importance of raising political and social awareness amongst the working class. It was during visits to Christensen that Jorn became familiar with the journal Frem and other small, sectarian magazines published by the left wing. In 1933, Jorn painted Christensen’s portrait using broad brushstrokes and simplified planes of colour, a style typical of his painting be - fore his first trip to Paris. In this portrait, Jorn shows Christensen as a large, warm, serious man with his characteristic bald head bent over a book [01.3] . 95530_asger jorn_SMK_q8__Layout 23/01/14 09.0808.49 Page 18

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During three stays in Paris – made between 1936 and 1939, where he studied at the French painter Fernand Léger’s Atélier de l’Art Contemporain and was introduced to international avant- garde art – Jorn retained his political engagement. Upon first arriving in Paris, he sought out, as a matter of course, the office of the Communist party, and a fellow party member helped him settle in and housed him immediately after his arrival. Like many other artists and intel - lectuals in Europe, he was concerned with the Spanish civil war and expressed his solidarity with Spain’s democratically elected Republican government. In the spring of 1937 and the sum - mer of 1938, Jorn assisted on the installation of an “informative exhibition” at the Spanish gov- ernment’s propaganda agency in Paris, presenting photographs and documents about the Spanish civil war. He also wrote essays to the Communist Arbejderbladet, reporting on the hor - rors of the civil war and the inhuman methods employed by Franco’s Fascist troops. Jorn’s texts from the 1930s are characterised by a passionate, agitational style and a firmly convinced defence of . They also, however, point to art’s potential in the battle for democracy. “The struggle fought by the Spanish government is borne forth by a wave of culture, the swell of which can be felt by the most remote countries on our globe, growing to form a fierce surf breaking against the attackers of Madrid,” he says in one of his essays. “No Spanish artist can be left untouched by what goes on in his country today […] The new Spanish art is agitational, but that in no way diminishes its worth as art.” To Jorn, the model example was Picasso, “pre-eminent of all artists working in this field,” whose large-scale painting Guernica had demonstrated to everyone that he was “aware and con - vinced” in his fight. 13 Similar subject matter can be found in Jorn’s own paintings, particularly around 1950, and his frequent contributions to especially Arbejderbladet in the 1930s suggest that he sensed a growing threat from Fascism and wished to warn others against it.

From Linien to Helhesten Jorn’s repeated stays in Paris in the late 1930s made him familiar with surrealism, partly through Fernand Léger, who introduced him to Surrealist literature. However, even before venturing out for France, he had already become acquainted with Surrealist art, presumably through the jour - nal Linien , which was published in 1934-35. Its texts and images proved crucial for the dis- semination of Surrealism in Denmark. The main drivers behind Linien were the three artists Vilhelm Bjerke-Petersen, Ejler Bille, and . Even before the end of 1934, a rift became a break between Bjerke-Petersen on the one hand and Mortensen and Bille on the other, supposedly because of Bjerke-Petersen’s far too heavy-handed, symbol-oriented inter - pretation of Surrealism. From that point on, Mortensen and Bille took on a more clearly defined role as representatives of an abstract interpretation of Surrealism, and when Jorn returned to Denmark in August of 1937 after his first period in Paris, he immediately sought out the two artists in Copenhagen. Surrealism would prove to be an important foundation for the subversive strategies developed by Jorn while Denmark was under German occupation. A straight line connects the journals Linien and Helhesten ; the first issue of the latter was published in 1941 and numbered Jorn and Bille amongst its main drivers. Despite dif - ferences between the aesthetic values promoted by the journals and the significantly 95530_asger jorn_SMK_q8__Layout 23/01/14 09.0808.49 Page 19

[0 1] INTRODUCTION 

[01.4] Høstudstillingen (Harvest Exhibition) 1948. Back row: Ernest Mancoba, Carl-Henning Pedersen, Erik Ortvad, Ejler Bille, Knud Nielsen, Sixten Wiklund, Aage Vogel-Jørgensen, Erik Thommesen. Seated: , Tony Appel, Christian Dotremont, Sonja Ferlov with her son Wonga, Else Alfelt. Front row: Jorn, Corneille, Constant, Henry Heerup

[01.5] Asger Jorn and at Samsø, 1943. Gunnar Jespersen’s photo collection, Museum Jorn, Silkeborg

changed political situation after Germany’s occupation of Denmark in 1940, there are also prominent similarities between the two. For example, both journals shared a profile that cut across established professional categories, they shared an interest in ethnographic sub- jects and popular culture, and both featured reviews and essays written by the artists them - selves and strove to actively contribute to the debates of their time. For Jorn, the period from the late 1930s up through the occupation years became char- acterised by an increasingly strong alliance with other Danish artists of his generation. From the autumn of 1937 onwards, Jorn and Bille formed a close relationship that grew particularly intense in 1938 when they both stayed in Paris at the same time. Jorn observed Bille’s unfet - tered experiments with drawing and painting which were, at this point, in marked contrast to Jorn’s own disciplined style of painting and drawing, heavily influenced by his schooling under Léger. His acquaintance with Bille prompted a development towards a rather more free visual idiom, and for Jorn the process gained momentum during the war. After the breakout of World War II and the occupation of Denmark, which forced the artists to stay in their native countries, the relationships between the Danish artists grew in strength. People such as Bille, the sculptor Robert Jacobsen, the architect Robert Dahlmann Olsen, and the archaeologist P.V. Glob became particularly close sparring partners for Jorn. They would go on combined holiday and working trips together, e.g. to the island of Samsø in the summer of 1943; a stay full of collaborative work, discussions, wild ideas, and parties [01.5] . The relationships created an artistic commu - nity, manifested through exhibitions, journals, and collective projects that challenged the values of the bourgeoisie and the occupational forces alike. Denmark passed through the trials of World War II relatively unscathed, and its cultural scene had much greater freedom to act than in other European countries. Jorn spoke of the 95530_asger jorn_SMK_q8__Layout 23/01/14 09.0808.49 Page 20

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[01.6] Untitled · c. 1941 · Oil on wood barrel· H: 69.85 cm Nova Southeastern University’s Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale

[01.7] Untitled · 1940-42 · Oil, cardboard, scraps, and sandpaper mounted on hardboard · 31 x 35 cm Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen 95530_asger jorn_SMK_q8__Layout 23/01/14 09.0808.49 Page 21

[0 1] INTRODUCTION 

occupation years as a “time of growth” that had prepared the artists to “take part in the future international evolution of art”. 14 The seeds of much of Jorn’s later art were sown by his activities in Denmark in the 1940s, and it was here that many of his key strategies were established. This is true of e.g. Jorn’s special preference for collective work, something he practiced when creating murals for a kindergarten in the Østerbro area of Copenhagen along with other ar tists; an act staged in opposition to a traditional Romantic-bourgeois celebration of the unique ly gifted author. The project prefigured the communal works created during the Cobra years. Jorn’s interest in Nordic culture was also founded during the war years; a time when travelling in Europe was difficult. The Nordic theme would continue to engage Jorn for the rest of his life and became an important aspect of his anti-classical worldview. Many of the themes that interested Jorn are reflected in the contents published in Helhesten ; the journal stands as a major testament to the Danish art scene of the period, and Jorn’s great dedication to the editorial process meant that it came to reflect his wide- ranging interests to a considerable degree. This is where Jorn’s art theoretical writings first became fully formed, including early key articles such as “Intime banaliteter” (“Intimate Ban- alities”), in which Jorn advocated the qualities of popular culture, and “De profetiske harper” (“The Prophetic Harps”) about the relationship between picture and word. His defence of popular culture proved particularly groundbreaking, providing a celebration of “the eternally commonplace, the simple and cheap” such as kitsch art, printed scraps, and tattoos. This happened only two years after the American art historian Clement Greenberg had published his epochal text “Avant-Garde and Kitsch” in 1939, arguing the exact opposite point: that kitsch expressed backwards-looking values and was the polar opposite of “genuine culture”. Jorn’s interest in popular culture is also embodied in his works from that period. For example,

[01.8] 1st International Experimental Art Exhibition, Cobra, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, November 1949. Poets’ cage, bottom to top, left to right: Gerrit Kouwenaar, Bert Schierbeek, , Jan Elburg, and Karl-Otto Götz. Word paintings by Lucebert UNVERKÄUFLICHE LESEPROBE

Statens Museum for Kunst Asger Jorn Restless Rebel

Gebundenes Buch mit Schutzumschlag, 280 Seiten, 24x30 300 farbige Abbildungen ISBN: 978-3-7913-5357-9

Prestel

Erscheinungstermin: März 2014

Asger Jorn war einer der wichtigsten Künstler der europäischen Avantgarde der Nachkriegszeit. Er gehörte mehreren Kunstströmungen an, die oftmals im Widerspruch zueinander standen: Für die Entwicklung des abstrakten Expressionismus in Europa war er von zentraler Bedeutung. Zugleich war er Gründungsmitglied der politisch engagierten Situationistischen Internationalen und kritisierte seine CoBrA-Kollegen, die sich mehr auf einen farbenprächtigen Malstil als auf das politische Potenzial der Kunst konzentrierten. Als die Situationistische Internationale ihre politischen Ziele deutlich über das künstlerische Anliegen stellte, löste er sich jedoch auch von dieser Gruppe. Bilder waren für Asger Jorn wichtiger als Worte, nichtsdestotrotz schrieb er viele Bücher. Die Widersprüche in Jorns Werk waren wichtiger Teil seiner künstlerischen Strategie und ein wesentliches Charakteristikum seines OEuvres. Diese chronologisch angelegte Monografie mit Essays führender Jorn-Experten und zahlreichen Abbildungen gibt einen Überblick über die wichtigsten Themen und Werke dieses großen dänischen Künstlers, der 2014 seinen 100. Geburtstag gefeiert hätte.