Asger Jorn – Quotes

It is said that

It is said that my art has some typically Nordic features: the curving lines, the convolutions, the magical masks and staring eyes that appear in myths and folk art. This may be. My interest in the dynamics of Jugend style probably also comes into it. Asger Jorn

To understand the magic

To understand the magic way of thinking you have to know non-magic thinking. If you see that clearly, you will see how many magic thoughts are necessary elements even of natural science today. Asger Jorn

The artistic formulae wear

The artistic formulae wear thin quickly and yet daily the artist – when developing his own foundation – must enter his own time and the problems of other contemporary artists. Paths cross and the soil of time is starting to be turned. Asger Jorn

There can be no

There can be no question of selecting in any direction, but of penetrating the whole cosmic law of rhythms, forces and material that are the real world, from the ugliest to the most beautiful, everything that has character and expression, from the crudest and most brutal to the gentlest and most delicate; everything that speaks … Read more

The reverse process is

The reverse process is extremely important to me – that artistic images can inspire to words and different myths, and that in certain cultures this process has been the normal relation between images and words. Asger Jorn

If the image was

If the image was sketched onto the canvas and spontaneously drawn, colour would often be restrained and unfree… The most important and the most difficult liberation process we went trough, the one that has distinguished our art, was the freeing of colour, the transition to a painterly spontaneity. Asger Jorn

In 1939 I wrote

In 1939 I wrote my first article (“Intime banaliteter” [Intimate banalities] in the journal Helhesten) in which I expressed my love for sofa painting, and for the last twenty years I have been preoccupied with the idea of rendering homage to it. Thus I act with full responsibility and after extensive reflection. Only my current … Read more