City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 2-2015 Mobilizing The Collective: Helhesten And The Danish Avant-Garde, 1934-1946 Kerry Greaves Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/566 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact:
[email protected] MOBILIZING THE COLLECTIVE: HELHESTEN AND THE DANISH AVANT-GARDE, 1934-1946 by KERRY GREAVES A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Art History in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York 2015 © 2015 KERRY GREAVES All Rights Reserved ii This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Art History in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Date Professor Emily Braun Chair of Examining Committee Date Professor Claire Bishop Executive Officer Professor Romy Golan Professor David Joselit Professor Karen Kurczynski Supervision Committee THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iii ABSTRACT MOBILIZING THE COLLECTIVE: HELHESTEN AND THE DANISH AVANT-GARDE, 1934-1946 by KERRY GREAVES Adviser: Professor Emily Braun This dissertation examines the avant-garde Danish artists’ collective Helhesten (The Hell- Horse), which was active from 1941 to 1944 in Nazi-occupied Copenhagen and undertook cultural resistance during the war. The main claim of this study is that Helhesten was an original and fully established avant-garde before the artists formed the more internationally focused Cobra group, and that the collective’s development of sophisticated socio-political engagement and new kinds of countercultural strategies prefigured those of postwar art groups such as Fluxus and the Situationist International.