Lot Essay
Executed in 1962, Le futur qui passe (The future which passes) belongs to the mature period of Jorn's art - a period characterised largely by the artist's reawakened concern with a largely intuitive use of pure colour as the essential material and building-block of his art.
At this time, Jorn almost always began his canvases in the top right hand corner of the picture and worked his way diagonally across towards the bottom left hand corner by following a path of free association in his brushstrokes that was determined solely by the first mark on the canvas - his point of departure. Le future qui passe is a large and imposing work that shows Jorn clearly articulating the very material nature of his colours by plying the canvas with thick strokes of heavy impasto swirls so that the varying texture of the paint becomes an integral part of the overall composition.
Keeping everything in a constant state of flux, Jorn suggests shapes and images without making them clear. Textures and colours merge and begin to define themselves in the same way that figurative elements can often be percieved in his work without being clearly defineable. Jorn seeks to create a dynamic tension between his forms that brings the whole to life. This was a conscious aim of his art that is often reflected in the deliberately ambiguous titles he gave to his work.
Le futur qui passe is a typical example of such a title, and the painting with its swirling semi-figurative forms emerging temporarily from the mass of activity and play at the centre of the canvas is an outstanding example of Jorn's ability to juggle and manipulate the colour and texture of his paint into a living mass. As Jean Dubuffet described him, Jorn "excelled at producing meaning during the course of creation being careful not to intervene too much, so as not to lose anything of the spontaneous, vital flow. He likes to keep 'meaning' speculative. He was in love with the irrational which in all his works he continually faced." (J. Dubuffet as cited in J. Atkins, Asger Jorn: The Final Years, 1965-73, London 1997, p. 15).
At this time, Jorn almost always began his canvases in the top right hand corner of the picture and worked his way diagonally across towards the bottom left hand corner by following a path of free association in his brushstrokes that was determined solely by the first mark on the canvas - his point of departure. Le future qui passe is a large and imposing work that shows Jorn clearly articulating the very material nature of his colours by plying the canvas with thick strokes of heavy impasto swirls so that the varying texture of the paint becomes an integral part of the overall composition.
Keeping everything in a constant state of flux, Jorn suggests shapes and images without making them clear. Textures and colours merge and begin to define themselves in the same way that figurative elements can often be percieved in his work without being clearly defineable. Jorn seeks to create a dynamic tension between his forms that brings the whole to life. This was a conscious aim of his art that is often reflected in the deliberately ambiguous titles he gave to his work.
Le futur qui passe is a typical example of such a title, and the painting with its swirling semi-figurative forms emerging temporarily from the mass of activity and play at the centre of the canvas is an outstanding example of Jorn's ability to juggle and manipulate the colour and texture of his paint into a living mass. As Jean Dubuffet described him, Jorn "excelled at producing meaning during the course of creation being careful not to intervene too much, so as not to lose anything of the spontaneous, vital flow. He likes to keep 'meaning' speculative. He was in love with the irrational which in all his works he continually faced." (J. Dubuffet as cited in J. Atkins, Asger Jorn: The Final Years, 1965-73, London 1997, p. 15).