Advanced anti-geometric space

Advanced anti-geometric space is an intriguing work by Asger Jorn where figuration and abstraction paradoxically appear to co-exist. Bodies, faces and geometrical shapes compete with lines, splashes, smudges and patches for our attention. Jorn himself refused the label 'abstract art', as he refused so many other interpretations of his art. Most of all, he critiqued the idea of avant-garde art, flourishing in artistic circles since the late 19th century and often used to describe to his radical style. He believed it to have proven to be authoritarian, suppressive and dogmatic. Although visually similar to the abstract paintings of Jackson Pollock, Jorn's painting is not only more suggestive of figuration but daunting and demonic in appearance. In this work, he was aspiring towards 'intuitive' geometrical shapes that retained a trace of his distorted, brutal representation. The mysterious title of the work is reflective of Jorn's interest in the physics, philosophy and poetry of space. As with many of his titles, it leaves an intimation of the thought behind it, yet is sufficiently open-ended to avoid easy interpretation. As he remarked, '... for me the aim is to find a title that cannot be confused with that of any other work, and which at the same time is the least deceptive, the least meaningful, the most neutral, the most abstract ...' (A. Jorn quoted in G. Atkins, Asger Jorn: The Crucial Years: 1954-1964, London, 1977, p. 143).