Details
Asger Jorn (1914-1973)

Det blaa billede - The blue picture

inscribed Asger Jorgensen on a label on the reverse, oil on canvas 83 x 100 cm

executed in 1940
Provenance
F.C. Boldsen, Copenhagen (see lot no. 604)
Literature
V. Winkel & Magnussen (eds.), Kunst i Privateje, Vol. III, Copenhagen 1945 p. 281 (ill.)
Elsa Fonnesbech-Sandberg, those I met, Carit Andersens Forlag Copenhagen 1945
Ole Sarvig, A lecture on Abstract Art, Helios Copenhagen 1945
Herman Madsen, 200 Danish painters & their works, Vol. II, Copenhagen 1946
Christian Dotremont, Asger Jorn, Bibliotheque de Cobra, Ejnar Munksgaard, Copenhagen 1950, Series I, no. 14 (ill.)
Asger Jorn, Asger Jorn om sig selv, Kunst Copenhagen, 1953
Guy Atkins and Eric Schmidt, A Bibliography of Asger Jorn's writings to 1963, Copenhagen 1964
Virtus Schade, Asger Jorn, Stig Vendelkaer, Copenhagen 1965
Guy Atkins, Jorn in Scandinavia 1930-1954, London 1954, p. 215, no. 162., Fig. 29 (colourill.)
Willemijn Stokvis, Cobra, geschiedenis, voorspel en betekenis van een beweging in de kunst na de Tweede Wereldoorlog, Amsterdam 1974, p. 28 (ill.)
Jean Clarence Lambert, Cobra, Antwerp 1983, p. 33 (also in the Dutch and English edition)
Exhibited
Copenhagen, De kunstnernes Eftenaarsudstillung, 23 November-15 December 1940, no. 123 and p. 15 (ill.) (titled Smaating)
Aalborg, Surrealisme - Abstrakt Kunst, autumn 1941, exhibition catalogue p. 9, no. 123 (ill.) (titled Smaating)
Gothenburg, Galerie Blomquest, Abstrakt Kunst i Denmark, March 1947, no. 44 (as Det blaa billede)
Paris, Surindépendance
, Dix-Septième exposition, 28 October-19 November 1950, no. 484 (as image blue)
Copenhagen, Kunstforeningen, Tre unge Malere, 11 April-7 May 1953, no. 53 (as Komposition)
Copenhagen, Charlottenborg, Vor Tids Kunst i Privatege, September 1958, no. 172 (as Det blaa billede)

Lot Essay

Jorn always regarded this painting as a crucial work in which he found his own style. He wrote:" The composition comes of its own accord. I started to paint from one side, adding one form after the other until the picture was full... I was extraordinarily going from one form to another and carrying on without worrying about the picture as an unified whole. Perhaps it has something rather cubist about it here and there, but it is exactly the opposite of the Cubist method of composition. (A. Jorn, Asger Jorn om sig selv, op. cit.)

See colour illustration and cover illustration (detail)

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