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The archives
The archives of Museum Jorn consists of three sections:
1) A library
2) A section containing documents about artists represented in the collection
3) The Asger Jorn archive
The two first sections are primarily internal reference sections, destined for the use of the museum staff. Consequently, the library and archive can only be consulted following previous agreement. No lending service or copying service is performed.
The third section, the archive of Asger Jorn, is a private archive, deposited at the museum by Jorn and his heirs. Private archives are normally inaccessible for fifty years after a person’s death. This is also basically the case with the Jorn archive. However, in single cases, people can be admitted to study material from the Jorn archive.
Asger Jorn's work in images and writing
An important area of research at Museum Jorn is Asger Jorn’s multifaceted work. This includes not only his artistic output, but also thousands of unpublished manuscript pages, including preliminary works, drafts of his many publications and correspondence with important actors in the art world.
Most of this material was presented by Asger Jorn himself, and is stored in the museum’s extensive research archives.
The archives are available to researchers who are studying aspects of Asger Jorn’s work.
The museum's research archives
The museum’s archives and library also contain a wealth of material touching on many of Asger Jorn’s artistic contemporaries: artists of Linien, Høst-gruppen associated with the journal Helhesten, the COBRA artists and the International Situationists.
The archives also contain large collections of archival material on Danish artists such as David Jacobsen, Johannes Holbek, Vilhelm Bjerke Petersen, the Ex school, and others.
Most of the archival material has been contributed to the museum by the artists themselves, or their heirs.
The library
The museum has a small library that focuses on material relating to the artists represented in the collection, as well as art magazines, and volumes on art and aesthetic theory. The museum also houses Asger Jorn’s private library.
The museum library does not lend its volumes.
The photographic collection
The greater part of the museums photographic collection comprises French photographer Gerard Franceschi’s approximately 25,000 exposures for Asger Jorn’s project, 10.000 års nordisk folkekunst (‘10,000 years of Nordic folk art’).
Another large part of this collection is Gunnar Jespersen’s photographic archive of pictures of Danish art and artists, primarily from the 1930s, ‘40s and ‘50s.
The museum also owns a large collection of slides of Danish and Swedish churches and frescos, collected by Johanne Andersen and Erik Andersen.
Robert Dalmann Olsen’s large photographic archive, purchased by the museum in 2008, is being indexed.
Digital collection
Data on the museum’s art collection may be found in digital form at the Kulturarvsstyrelsen (Heritage Agency of Denmark) database, KID. The photographic reproductions are updated on an ongoing basis.
The museum’s archival material and photographic collections are not yet digitised. Archival material is catalogued on index cards, as in a library.
Robert Dalmann Olsen’s large photographic archive, purchased by the museum in 2008, is being indexed.
Archive visit
In single cases, people can be admitted to study material from the Jorn archive on the following conditions:
The purpose of the study must be an independent, or a post-graduate research project. The outline of the project should be described in advance. The museum will then undertake to find out if there is relevant material in the archive. The material can be studied in the museum. No photocopying of manuscripts is allowed. Excerpts can be made, but publication permission must be obtained from the Jorn estate, if quotations exceed the standard length, according to copyright rules.
A copy of eventual published work or work submitted to public evaluation, should be made available to the museum by the visitors to the archive, when reference is made in the work to material from the archive.
The visitor to the archive must observe any directions given by the museum concerning the use of the archive or library. Work will have to be carried out during the regular opening hours or working hours of the staff.
It will facilitate the search for relevant material if the visitor will inform the museum beforehand of language capacities. The major part of the archive material is in Danish.