Asger Jorn (DANISH, 1914-1973)

Detourned Painting

Intended for the general public. Read effortlessly.

Be Modern,
collectors, museums.
If you have old paintings,
do not despair.
Retain your memories
but detourn them
so that they correspond with your era.
Why reject the old
if we can modernize it
with a few strokes of a brush?
This cast a bit of contemporaneity
on your old culture,
Be up to date,
and distinguished
at the same time.
Painting is over.
You might as well finish it off.
Detourn.
Long live painting.


Asger Jorn.



Translated from the French and annotated by Thomas Y. Levin. Original text, peinture détourneé, first published in Vingt peintures, modifiées par Asgar Jorn, exhibition catalogue, Paris Galerie Rive Gauche, May 1959.