Collections
Museum Jorn is best known for its unique collection of Asger Jorn’s own art: The more than 140 paintings give a comprehensive picture of the Danish global artist who played a significant role in the development of art in the 20th century.
Asger Jorn’s work may be experienced at Museum Jorn’s permanent exhibition, which portrays a particularly productive, innovative and experimental artist, who throughout his life took the initiative in establishing artistic groups and networks, and who continued to experiment with new materials and forms of expression.
JORN’S DEVELOPMENT AS AN ARTIST
At Museum Jorn, one can follow Asger Jorn’s artistic development, from his expressionist city- and landscapes of the early 1930s, through abstract paintings influenced by his time in Paris, and artists such as Miró, Fernand Legér and Poul Klee, to the spontaneous abstract art that he developed during World War II, and which came to form the basis of the Cobra movement, and for Asger Jorn’s personal artistic development.
MUCH MORE THAN A PAINTER
Asger Jorn is principally recognised as Scandinavia’s great expressionist painter, along the lines of Edvard Munch. However, he worked and experimented with many different materials, and Museum Jorn has on display a comprehensive collection of Asger Jorn’s ceramics, his graphic works and drawings, not to mention the tapestries he created in collaboration with the French artist, Pierre Wemaëre.
TWO MASTERPIECES
Among Asger Jorn’s undisputed masterpieces are the 14-metre-long tapestry, Den lange rejse (‘The long journey’), which Jorn and Wemaëre created for the Statsgymnasium (State Upper Secondary School) in Aarhus, and the painting, Stalingrad, Stedet som ikke er, eller modets gale latter (Stalingrad, le non-lieu où le fou-rire du courage, meaning: ‘Stalingrad, the non-place, or the mad laughter of courage’), on which Jorn worked for 15 years. Both works are on permanent display at Museum Jorn.
EXPERIMENTS AND PROVOCATION
Throughout his life, Asger Jorn experimented with new forms of expression and opportunities to evolve. Among other things, he purchased old gilt-framed kitsch at flea markets in Paris, and he repurposed pictures as bases for his own works: By adding vividly-coloured ducks and disturbing masks, he ‘modernised’ old paintings of woodland lakes, landscapes and society matrons.
INTERNATIONAL ART COLLECTION
In addition to his own work, Asger Jorn donated an international art collection, comprising about 5000 works, to the museum in Silkeborg. Jorn called the collection ‘minder fra min tid’ (‘memories from my time’), and selected all the works himself; he did not attempt to conceal the fact that the collection is extremely personal. It highlights spontaneous abstract art, and was not assembled with regard to a traditional, art history perspective, but according to what he himself felt was essential.
THE MUSEUM’S OWN COLLECTION
Since Asger Jorn’s death in 1973, the museum’s art collection has steadily grown, and has more than doubled owing to purchases and donations from artists and collectors. today, the museum owns a large collection of Danish and foreign art, which is on view in the changing exhibitions. A count indicates that 452 artists are represented in the museum.
Further information on Museum Jorn is avilable in the museum brochure, here.
JORN’S DEVELOPMENT AS AN ARTIST
At Museum Jorn, one can follow Asger Jorn’s artistic development, from his expressionist city- and landscapes of the early 1930s, through abstract paintings influenced by his time in Paris, and artists such as Miró, Fernand Legér and Poul Klee, to the spontaneous abstract art that he developed during World War II, and which came to form the basis of the Cobra movement, and for Asger Jorn’s personal artistic development.
MUCH MORE THAN A PAINTER
Asger Jorn is principally recognised as Scandinavia’s great expressionist painter, along the lines of Edvard Munch. However, he worked and experimented with many different materials, and Museum Jorn has on display a comprehensive collection of Asger Jorn’s ceramics, his graphic works and drawings, not to mention the tapestries he created in collaboration with the French artist, Pierre Wemaëre.
TWO MASTERPIECES
Among Asger Jorn’s undisputed masterpieces are the 14-metre-long tapestry, Den lange rejse (‘The long journey’), which Jorn and Wemaëre created for the Statsgymnasium (State Upper Secondary School) in Aarhus, and the painting, Stalingrad, Stedet som ikke er, eller modets gale latter (Stalingrad, le non-lieu où le fou-rire du courage, meaning: ‘Stalingrad, the non-place, or the mad laughter of courage’), on which Jorn worked for 15 years. Both works are on permanent display at Museum Jorn.
EXPERIMENTS AND PROVOCATION
Throughout his life, Asger Jorn experimented with new forms of expression and opportunities to evolve. Among other things, he purchased old gilt-framed kitsch at flea markets in Paris, and he repurposed pictures as bases for his own works: By adding vividly-coloured ducks and disturbing masks, he ‘modernised’ old paintings of woodland lakes, landscapes and society matrons.
INTERNATIONAL ART COLLECTION
In addition to his own work, Asger Jorn donated an international art collection, comprising about 5000 works, to the museum in Silkeborg. Jorn called the collection ‘minder fra min tid’ (‘memories from my time’), and selected all the works himself; he did not attempt to conceal the fact that the collection is extremely personal. It highlights spontaneous abstract art, and was not assembled with regard to a traditional, art history perspective, but according to what he himself felt was essential.
THE MUSEUM’S OWN COLLECTION
Since Asger Jorn’s death in 1973, the museum’s art collection has steadily grown, and has more than doubled owing to purchases and donations from artists and collectors. today, the museum owns a large collection of Danish and foreign art, which is on view in the changing exhibitions. A count indicates that 452 artists are represented in the museum.
Further information on Museum Jorn is avilable in the museum brochure, here.
