Asger Jorn, “Green Ballet”, Oil on Canvas, 1960, Guggenheim Museum, New York
Asger Oluf Jörgensen was born in Vejrum, Denmark, on March 3, 1914. He visited Paris in the fall of 1936, where he studied at Fernand Leger’s Académie Contemporaine. During World WarII, Jorn remained in Denmark, painting canvases that reflected the influence of James Ensor, Vasily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, and Joan Miro, and contributing to the magazine “Helhesten (Ghost Horse)”, working on nine issues from 1941–44.
Jorn traveled to Swedish Lapland in the summer of 1946, met Constant Nieuwenhuys in Paris that fall, and spent six months in Jerba, Tunisia, from 1947–48. His first solo exhibition in Paris took place in 1948 at the Galerie Breteau. At about the same time the group Cobra (an acronym for Copenhagen, Brussels, Amsterdam) was founded by Karel Appel, Constant, Guillaume Cornelis Beverloo, Christian Dotremont, Jorn, and Joseph Noiret. The group’s unifying doctrine was the complete freedom of expression with an emphasis on color and brushwork. Jorn edited monographs of the group’s Bibliothèque Cobra before disassociating himself from the movement.
Jorn’s activities included painting, collage, book illustration, prints, drawings, ceramics, tapestries, commissions for murals, and, in his last years, sculpture. He participated in the movement Internationale Situationniste and worked on a study of early Scandinavian art between 1961 and 1965. His first solo show in New York took place in 1962 at the Lefebre Gallery. From 1966 Jorn concentrated on oil painting and traveled frequently, visiting Cuba, England and Scotland, the United States, and Asia. Jorn died on May 1, 1973, in Aarhus, Denmark.