Asger Jorn's Collections
In 1953 Asger Jorn wanted to work at a pottery workshop in Sorring near Silkeborg, an old centre for earthenware utensils in Jutland. The Silkeborg Museum reached an agreement with Jorn to pay his expenses at the workshop and in return to select a number of the ceramic works that were to be produced.
In connection with this acquisition Jorn donated some of his drawings, etchings and litographs to the museum. He also promised in the future to continue his donations and to extend them to include also works by his artist friends. The art collection in the museum was at that time very small and mainly confined to local artists.
In 1958 Jorn started systematically to collect a number of works of his contemporaries in Europe and of artists whose works had served as an inspiration for him. This resulted in an exhibition called 'New International Art', which opened in 1959. The exhibition included about one hundred works. In the catalogue Jorn explained some of his intentions with the collection, which turned out to be unique in its direction and choice of objects. The aim was neither 'to create a general orientation about the most modern art, nor a collection of precious masterpieces.' (...)
"This little collection is intended more as a provocation than as an expression of gratitude to Danish art circles. Just how and why are matters for the individual Scandinavian with an interest in art to discover for himself.
Museum objects are souvenirs. These particular objects belong in a personal way to my time. Time will show if they are more than souvenirs."
In the course of the 1960s the Museum held a number of exhibitions that were all prepared by Jorn. He concentrated on graphic works by his own contemporaries. This led to the building up of almost complete collections of all the graphic works of Jean Dubuffet, Matta and Pierre Alechinsky. In addition came the purchase of more than one hundred works by Henri Michaux, a similar number of works by Pierre Wemaëre, and a number of drawings and paintings by the Danish symbolist artist Johannes Holbek.
He explained his museum policy in a letter to the Museum, written in 1961: "I could have borrowed more good things by Dubuffet and others. But I have laid down the principle that the museum must never exhibit anything but its own property. We already have Louisiana and the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, both of which hold exhibitions and see to it that people are kept informed of new developments. I want to collaborate with the Silkeborg Museum because there I can make it clear to the public what I like and what I happen to find significant at the present moment, not because I have any wish to set myself up as a judge of quality in art, but quite simply to show what a particular, limited circle regards as the most significant."
The whole time Jorn kept sending paintings, drawings, ceramics and graphic works by himself, and in 1964, on his fiftieth birthday, the Museum organised on its own initiative a large exhibition of his works.
In 1968 Jorn added his principal work Stalingrad to the collection. Several of his donations have an intimate character; among them are many small pictures, improvisations and sketches. Jorn wanted in no way personally to dominate the collection.
The collections present the abstract-spontaneous art, its origins and evolution. Jorn has as his starting point some figure compositions of the 18th century. In the 19th century he concentrates upon some Scandinavian artists that established close relations with tendencies in European art without giving up their own identity, as for instance Anton Melbye, I. C. Dahl, Ernst Josephson and Johannes Holbek. From there on, Jorn proceeds to Symbolism, with Redon, Ensor and Jarry. German Expressionism is represented by Beckmann, Corinth, Dix and Nolde. To Jorn Symbolism and Expressionism were pre-requisites of spontaneous-abstract painting. The significance of Surrealism for Danish art is marked by important works by Picabia, Jean Arp, Man Ray and Max Ernst.
With these sections of the collections the way is paved for a description of Jorn's own time and the groups in which he played a decisive role: first the Danish spontaneous-abstract art before and during the war, then the extension of these concepts in post-war European art, marked by Cobra and the international gatherings in Albissola, Italy, around the ceramic workshops in the 1950s.
According to Jorn, Wols and Pollock at this time reached an extreme limit in painting. The collection contains almost the entire graphic oeuvre of Wols.
In his last years Jorn added calligraphic works by the Japanese artist Shiryu Morita, improvisations by the Cuban painter Feijoo, and a collection of Japanese paper kites. This »art brut«, an art of »intimate banalities«, globally conceived, was the last hint of a perspective that he gave through the Museum in Silkeborg.
Troels Andersen In: Asger Jorn's collections. Silkeborg Kunstmuseum 1982
In connection with this acquisition Jorn donated some of his drawings, etchings and litographs to the museum. He also promised in the future to continue his donations and to extend them to include also works by his artist friends. The art collection in the museum was at that time very small and mainly confined to local artists.
In 1958 Jorn started systematically to collect a number of works of his contemporaries in Europe and of artists whose works had served as an inspiration for him. This resulted in an exhibition called 'New International Art', which opened in 1959. The exhibition included about one hundred works. In the catalogue Jorn explained some of his intentions with the collection, which turned out to be unique in its direction and choice of objects. The aim was neither 'to create a general orientation about the most modern art, nor a collection of precious masterpieces.' (...)
"This little collection is intended more as a provocation than as an expression of gratitude to Danish art circles. Just how and why are matters for the individual Scandinavian with an interest in art to discover for himself.
Museum objects are souvenirs. These particular objects belong in a personal way to my time. Time will show if they are more than souvenirs."
In the course of the 1960s the Museum held a number of exhibitions that were all prepared by Jorn. He concentrated on graphic works by his own contemporaries. This led to the building up of almost complete collections of all the graphic works of Jean Dubuffet, Matta and Pierre Alechinsky. In addition came the purchase of more than one hundred works by Henri Michaux, a similar number of works by Pierre Wemaëre, and a number of drawings and paintings by the Danish symbolist artist Johannes Holbek.
He explained his museum policy in a letter to the Museum, written in 1961: "I could have borrowed more good things by Dubuffet and others. But I have laid down the principle that the museum must never exhibit anything but its own property. We already have Louisiana and the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, both of which hold exhibitions and see to it that people are kept informed of new developments. I want to collaborate with the Silkeborg Museum because there I can make it clear to the public what I like and what I happen to find significant at the present moment, not because I have any wish to set myself up as a judge of quality in art, but quite simply to show what a particular, limited circle regards as the most significant."
The whole time Jorn kept sending paintings, drawings, ceramics and graphic works by himself, and in 1964, on his fiftieth birthday, the Museum organised on its own initiative a large exhibition of his works.
In 1968 Jorn added his principal work Stalingrad to the collection. Several of his donations have an intimate character; among them are many small pictures, improvisations and sketches. Jorn wanted in no way personally to dominate the collection.
The collections present the abstract-spontaneous art, its origins and evolution. Jorn has as his starting point some figure compositions of the 18th century. In the 19th century he concentrates upon some Scandinavian artists that established close relations with tendencies in European art without giving up their own identity, as for instance Anton Melbye, I. C. Dahl, Ernst Josephson and Johannes Holbek. From there on, Jorn proceeds to Symbolism, with Redon, Ensor and Jarry. German Expressionism is represented by Beckmann, Corinth, Dix and Nolde. To Jorn Symbolism and Expressionism were pre-requisites of spontaneous-abstract painting. The significance of Surrealism for Danish art is marked by important works by Picabia, Jean Arp, Man Ray and Max Ernst.
With these sections of the collections the way is paved for a description of Jorn's own time and the groups in which he played a decisive role: first the Danish spontaneous-abstract art before and during the war, then the extension of these concepts in post-war European art, marked by Cobra and the international gatherings in Albissola, Italy, around the ceramic workshops in the 1950s.
According to Jorn, Wols and Pollock at this time reached an extreme limit in painting. The collection contains almost the entire graphic oeuvre of Wols.
In his last years Jorn added calligraphic works by the Japanese artist Shiryu Morita, improvisations by the Cuban painter Feijoo, and a collection of Japanese paper kites. This »art brut«, an art of »intimate banalities«, globally conceived, was the last hint of a perspective that he gave through the Museum in Silkeborg.
Troels Andersen In: Asger Jorn's collections. Silkeborg Kunstmuseum 1982
