Asger Jorn : 8 litografier = (8 lithographs) [Starr Figura] Author Jorn, Asger, 1914-1973 Date 1998 Publisher The Museum of Modern Art, Department of Prints and Illustrated Books Exhibition URL www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/224 The Museum of Modern Art's exhibition history— from our founding in 1929 to the present—is available online. It includes exhibition catalogues, primary documents, installation views, and an index of participating artists. MoMA © 2017 The Museum of Modern Art AsgerJorn 8 Litografier (8 Lithographs) (1945, published1949) Three from a portfolio of eight lithographs Eachsheet 19Yz x 14" (49.5 x 35.6 cm) Publisher:ARS-Verlag, Stockholm Printer: Jens Christian Sorensen,Copenhagen Edition: 160 The Museumof ModernArt, NewYork Gift of the artist, 1947 Plate 2 The Danishartist AsgerJorn (1914-1973)is best known art and mythologyfor inspiration.Jorn was the origina as one of the foundingmembers of the Europeanmove tor of the COBRAstyle, in which turbulent swarms of ment known as COBRA,a contemporary but indepen figurative and abstract forms suggesting ghosts and dent counterpart of Abstract Expressionism in the mythical figures are closely woventogether. United States.The term COBRAis an acronymderived 8 Litografier was created just before the advent of from its members'three cities: Copenhagen,Sffussels, COBRA,during a period in which Jorn was developing and Amsterdam.Among the other personalities in the his personal iconographyand experimenting with vari COBRA group, which officially ous ideas and techniques that he lasted from 1948 to 1951, were had encounteredas a youngartist Christian Dotremont and Pierre in the 1930s. He had spent several Alechinsky (Belgium), and Karel monthsin Paris in 1936-37, study Appel and Corneille (Cornelis van ing under Fernand Leger and Beverloo)(The Netherlands).Like working for Le Corbusier at the the Abstract Expressionists, the 1937 International Exhibition. COBRAartists utilized someof the More influential than this formal methodsand ideas of Surrealism, training was his exposureto Sur especially its emphasis on the realism, especially Joan Miro's unconsciousas a meansof uncov biomorphicforms, Andre Masson's ering universal truths. But at the automatic style, and Paul Klee's same time, the COBRA artists linear patterning and magical sub rejected Surrealism's basis in ject matter. Jorn's own style syn theory and intellectualism in favor thesizedthese influencestogether of greater experimentation and with his interest in Scandinavian spontaneity. In striving towards a myths and his affinity with the kind of primitivism, the COBRA angst-riddenwork of James Ensor artists also looked to Nordic folk Plate5 and Edvard Munch. Duringthe mid-1940sJorn cre short-livedorganizations and artist ated severalseries of works based groups, and these activities often on personal themes, to which he served as alternate outlets for assignedevocative, often made-up his writing and printmaking. For names.8 Litografier\s specifically example, during the war years in related to one of these themes, Copenhagen,he made some of his called Didaska,a term Jorn coined first etchings on the underground that combines"Dida" and "Aska." presses which he was also using "Aska" may refer to the ash (ask), to print the illegal Communist a sacredtree in Nordic mythology, monthly, Land og Folk (Country while "Dida" was the nicknameof and People).Jorn created manyof a woman Jorn knew at the time. his prints as illustrations for books, Jorn's Didaskapaintings and draw and the periodical COBRA, pub ings, created between 1944 and lished by the COBRAartists, often 1946, are populated with figures featured both articles and original resemblingbirds or gnomes.Many lithographsby Jorn. are two-figure compositions,as in Jorn recognized the impact Plate 2. Typically,the two person that printed matter could exert Plate 8 ages are either close together or through its dissemination, and he combinedinto a single pattern, and their headsare dis had an instinct for the expressivepotential that is par proportionately large. Other Didaskaimages present a ticular to each print medium. In 8 Litografier he was single bird-like figure, as in Plate 5. A third exampleof able to achieve fluid lines and elaborate patterning Didaska imagery, which is manifested in Plate 8, is a through lithography,the printmaking technique that is quasi-abstract, allover composition, in which a dense closestto drawing.The portfolio format also appealed web of flowing lines revealsa complexcluster of birds, to Jorn, as it enabledhim to "warm up" to his technique trolls, and other mysteriousbeings. Many pairs of tiny and allowed his forms to evolvethrough more than one circles representthe wide eyesof facesthat peer out at image,thus contributing to the spontaneityand uncon the viewer. sciousrhythm that he desired. Jorn was a prolific painter and printmaker who made over 2,200 paintings and more than 430 prints Starr Figura between 1932 and 1972. He was also a writer whose AssistantCurator booksand articles coveredeverything from philosophy and economicsto archaeologyand aesthetic theory. In Thiscard is madepossible by The Young Print Collectorsof The Museum addition to COBRA,Jorn was involved in severalother of ModernArt. © 1998The Museumof ModernArt, NewYork The Museum Producedin conjunctionwith the exhibition Dubuffet to de Kooning: of Modern Art ExpressionistPrints, Europeand America Departmentof Prints October29,1998- February2,1999 and Illustrated Books.