Lot Essay
Guy Atkins firmly believes that 1954 to 1964 was a "crucial decade" for Asger Jorn. This is when the artist dissociated himself from the CoBrA movement and left Denmark. By 1964 he had established himself as a major figure in European Art, and celebrated his fiftieth birthday with an international retrospective exhibition, and the publication of a bibliography of his writings. He was also awarded the Guggenheim International Award.
Jorn had, by now, evolved his own innovative and instinctive style of painting. Working in Italy had enriched his feeling for colour; and applying himself to other mediums - to collage, ceramics and tapestries - had broadened his aesthetic. Hence, in the paintings from the late Fifties and early Sixties colour and line now become more expressive and autonomous.
In "Da dem Kom" colour clearly has a life of its own. Jorn's loose brush-strokes half suggest images, but he refrained from clarifying them; thus they remain in the shadowland of the subconscious. His kinship with Nordic Expressionism, and particularly the work of Munch, prompted his interest in the expressive power of colours and the value of myth as a source for his imagery. However, in this piece, the colours are stronger than the images. It is the yellows, reds, golds and blues that dominate, and Jorn applies them with such aggression the piece generates its own dynamic tension. Karl Schawelka commented, "Forms halfway between abstraction and concrete legibility have been familiar in modern art for a long time, so we have to ask ourselves by what special means Jorn creates this state of suspense and what is the nature of his personal iconography. His recognisable figures arise out of the painting process itself. They are not planned but discovered...Within a wilderness of colours Jorn will suddenly see a face or body, because in his mind's eye he has brought together brush-strokes that are separated by a space, but to him they suddenly reveal a configuration that makes sense of an image." (repro. in Asger Jorn - Supplement: Paintings 1930-1973, London 1986, pp. 22-23)
Jorn had, by now, evolved his own innovative and instinctive style of painting. Working in Italy had enriched his feeling for colour; and applying himself to other mediums - to collage, ceramics and tapestries - had broadened his aesthetic. Hence, in the paintings from the late Fifties and early Sixties colour and line now become more expressive and autonomous.
In "Da dem Kom" colour clearly has a life of its own. Jorn's loose brush-strokes half suggest images, but he refrained from clarifying them; thus they remain in the shadowland of the subconscious. His kinship with Nordic Expressionism, and particularly the work of Munch, prompted his interest in the expressive power of colours and the value of myth as a source for his imagery. However, in this piece, the colours are stronger than the images. It is the yellows, reds, golds and blues that dominate, and Jorn applies them with such aggression the piece generates its own dynamic tension. Karl Schawelka commented, "Forms halfway between abstraction and concrete legibility have been familiar in modern art for a long time, so we have to ask ourselves by what special means Jorn creates this state of suspense and what is the nature of his personal iconography. His recognisable figures arise out of the painting process itself. They are not planned but discovered...Within a wilderness of colours Jorn will suddenly see a face or body, because in his mind's eye he has brought together brush-strokes that are separated by a space, but to him they suddenly reveal a configuration that makes sense of an image." (repro. in Asger Jorn - Supplement: Paintings 1930-1973, London 1986, pp. 22-23)