Asger Jorn

Possibly Paris, Surindépendants, autumn 1938
Private Collection, France, 1938

The painting was only known by N. Th. Mortensen on a photograph (Atkins no. 4, p. 274), who believes that the painting was exhibited at the Surindépendants in Paris 1938

N. Th. Mortensen, Dansk billedkunst gennem en menneskealder (A generation of Danish art), Odense 1939.
G. Atkins, Jorn in Scandinavia 1930-1953, Copenhagen 1968, p. 274, app. 4, illustrated

Colours: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate although the overall tonality is less intense and softer in the original. Condition: Very minor craquelures throughout. Minor buckling to the corners, would benefit from restretching. Minor surface dirt throughout. Very minor paint loss along the sides. A non-disturbing fold (approx. 2,5cm.) along the extreme left side edge of the canvas, easily to be restored. Otherwise in very good condition.
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Asger Jorn (1914-1973), with his teacher training finished in Denmark, moved to Paris in 1936. He had hoped to study with Wassily Kandinsky, but this was not possible since Kandinsky did not take on pupils. Instead Jorn went to Fernand Léger. There Jorn was introduced to an attitude towards painting that was in strong contrast to the Expressionism he had known up to that time. In a letter from 1952 he wrote about his impressions of Léger's teaching:

"One day Pierre Loeb said to me that the ideal picture is one which is completely clear in the artist's mind before he puts a mark on the canvas, and this was, at any rate in this period ... Léger's opinion. It is the basis on which classical art is built. Therefore the setting-down of the picture on the canvas is in itself something quite unimportant. This is connected with Léger's hatred of textural effects in painting. But I love these effects. I remember that I was once told off because I had applied a thick layer of color instead of the thin and even layer that Léger wanted. To him that was not painting but mere color. If he could have got a machine instead of a brush to apply the color, he would have done so".

In order to help him both financially and artistically, Léger got Jorn several commissions. Amongst other works Jorn, with two other pupils, was responsible for the execution of Léger's large composition Le transport des forces in 1937 (see fig. 1). Jorn painted the large soft shapes which move upwards through the picture. Traces of these shapes and technique can be seen distinctly in Jorn's own compositions, as in the present lot from circa 1938.

Sometimes Jorn borrowed a particular feature of Léger's technique, for instance when he tinted a canvas in order to work on a coloured or tinted base instead of the white gesso. The components of the picture were then laid down on this background either as linear shapes or as outlines coloured in. The shapes could be modeled either plastically or the flat surface could be emphasized.

"Groupez-vous", said Leger to his Scandinavian pupils in the twenties when they left Paris to return home. Jorn did not need Leger's advice. In the artist's movement Linien he had seen an example of how mutual discussion and a vigorous exchange of ideas had enlivened and transformed the Danish art scene.
Jorn often joined forces with other artists in exhibitions, magazines or in sharing studios, but as one of his contemporaries said, "He was not really a 'group person'. He was an egocentric who could do everything by himself, but only after things had developed to the point where there was no longer any need for a group". Nevertheless Asger Jorn was one of the founding members of the European avant-garde CoBrA movement in 1948.

(From: T. Andersen, Asger Jorn, Silkeborg 1985, pp. 25-31)