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Lot Essay
Untitled is one of Asger Jorn's most important works from his 'Didaska' group of paintings. From the early 1940s, the artist began to group his works together under a common theme or idea and name them accordingly; such as 'Didaska', 'Le Droite de l'aigle' or 'Aganak' painting. The present work belongs to a series executed between 1944 and 1946 and is the first series that he consiously group together. It is the most important and the largest examples of this early series and was formerly in the collection of Elna Fonnesbech-Sandberg, the great patron of the artist, whom he painted on a number of occasions. The title of this series, that manifests itself in lyrical expression of a purely personal or intimate experience, is made up of two words 'Dida' and 'Aska' which were the nicknames of Sandberg and Jorn respectively.
This seminal work is an impressive celebration of form and colour that prefigures Jorn's greatest achievements with the CoBrA group movement a few years later. It draws upon the same underlying influences that made the movement such a radical and important one. A group of artists that would include some of the most important artists of the twentieth century, including Pierre Alechinsky, Karel Appel, Constant and Carl-Henning Pedersen, collaborated in their efforts to find a universal artistic language, inspired by the creative impulses of the purported primitives, of children and the mentally ill to create what would be considered as a new folk art.
Untitled is a fine example of the most typical 'Didaska' paintings which feature two figures. In the present work, the figures seem inextricably linked by the paint as they undulate back and forth. It is difficult to ascertain whether the subjects are figures or possibly even animals although they do seem to have physiological features more akin to humans. Subject aside, it is the monumental nature of the composition, coupled with the fact that the pictorial space is completely filled with action, thrusting right to the pictorial plane, condensed into the canvas, which imbues the work with a sense of immediacy and energy. Combining bold colour and lines, the artist's energetic brushwork suggests the intensity of his feelings and the liberation of his thoughts onto canvas. A more suggestive than descriptive work, Untitled, is a celebration of form, colour and movement that entices and invigorates the viewer.
This seminal work is an impressive celebration of form and colour that prefigures Jorn's greatest achievements with the CoBrA group movement a few years later. It draws upon the same underlying influences that made the movement such a radical and important one. A group of artists that would include some of the most important artists of the twentieth century, including Pierre Alechinsky, Karel Appel, Constant and Carl-Henning Pedersen, collaborated in their efforts to find a universal artistic language, inspired by the creative impulses of the purported primitives, of children and the mentally ill to create what would be considered as a new folk art.
Untitled is a fine example of the most typical 'Didaska' paintings which feature two figures. In the present work, the figures seem inextricably linked by the paint as they undulate back and forth. It is difficult to ascertain whether the subjects are figures or possibly even animals although they do seem to have physiological features more akin to humans. Subject aside, it is the monumental nature of the composition, coupled with the fact that the pictorial space is completely filled with action, thrusting right to the pictorial plane, condensed into the canvas, which imbues the work with a sense of immediacy and energy. Combining bold colour and lines, the artist's energetic brushwork suggests the intensity of his feelings and the liberation of his thoughts onto canvas. A more suggestive than descriptive work, Untitled, is a celebration of form, colour and movement that entices and invigorates the viewer.