Museum Jorn's collection

Museum Jorn's collection is unlike any other 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 more than 550 artists are represented by the museum, of which only a few have been mentioned here.

The early 1900s
The museum’s collection had its beginnings at the last turn of the century, which included the works of Albert Gottschalk, Aksel Jørgensen and Julius Paulsen, all of whom worked with light, atmospheric and colour effects. The works, like Jens Adolf Jerichaus’s large figure compositions, were a major inspiration for later generations of Danish artists.

The 1930s, ’40s and ’50s
The 1930s are represented by two different generations of painters: The older generation, including artists such as Søren Hjorth Nielsen, Svend Guttorm, Jørgen Thomsen and John Christensen, was generally occupied with the picturesque, with motifs that included the landscape, social portrayals, and interiors.
During these same years, the younger generation developed a new, abstract idiom: Vilhelm Bjerke Petersen, Ejler Bille, Richard Mortensen, Sonja Ferlov, Erik Ortvad, Henry Heerup, Egill Jacobsen, Carl-Henning Pedersen and others were inspired by the new surrealist movement from abroad, and added their own dimension to the surreal and the abstract.

THE 1960S AND BEYOND
From the second half of the 20th century, the museum owns works of the Eks-skolen (‘Ex[perimental] school’) artists: Paul Gernes, Richard Winther, Per Kirkeby, Bjørn Nørgaard, Peter Louis-Jensen and others. Common to these artists are their experiments with abstract painting, in which the materials’ colour and tactile properties are central. This generation is also represented by Erik Hagens, Ursula Reuter Christiansen and Lene Adler Petersen. The last two named are examples of a generation of forceful female artists who consciously worked with the feminine aspects of artistic expression, incorporating the sensual and drawing motifs within the framework of personal experience.
The 1980s are represented by the Lars Ravn, while Christian Vinds’ works bring the collection into the 21st Century.

The ‘un-categorisable’ and the literary
Some of the artists, whose work is in the museum’s collection, are unique in that they worked outside the mainstream of the art scene. For example, there are Hilda Wanscher and Asta Nielsen, each of whom was intensely productive at the kitchen counter.
Poul Pedersen, Leif Lage, Frank Rubin, Gordon Fazakerley and Erik Liljenberg all worked with literature as their inspiration.

Works in plaster
The museum has a fine collection of Svend Rathsack’s (1885–1941) original plaster sculptures, as well as a smaller selection of those by Rasmus Harboe (1868–1952) and Carl Mortensen. These plaster works stood for many years in the Christiansborg Castle attic, as parts of a larger collection destined for a museum of Danish sculpture. The attic was emptied in the late 1980s, and concerted efforts were made to place the plaster works in suitable museums and institutions. Museum Jorn, then the Silkeborg Kunstmuseum (Silkeborg Museum of Art), took responsibility for these sculptors’ works.

Mid-Jutland artists
Museum Jorn’s collection has never been bound by its location, but does include the work of artists from the area around Silkeborg. Martin Kaalund Jørgensen, Asger Jorn’s teacher and a forceful presence in the artists’ group, Frie Jyske Malere (‘Free Painters of Jutland’) of the 1920s and ‘30s, Erik Raadal, from the same period, and late-20th-century ceramicist Erik Nyholm are well-represented, as is the group from around Sminge station: Monica and Niels Jørgen Nicolaisen, Poul Vandborg and Jørgen Jacobsen. Bodil Sohn and Erik Gamdrup Jensen are also from the area around Silkeborg.

FOREIGN ARTISTS
The foreign division of the museum’s collection includes the work of herman de vries (Holland), Terry Atkinson (England), Felix Rozen (France) and Ernest Mancoba (South Africa/France), among others.
The museum has continued to acquire the work of many of the artists included by Asger Jorn in his own collection. These include Antonio Saura (Spain), Yasse Tabuchi and in particular, Pierre Alechinsky, who donated a large number of works on paper, including works by other artists, notably the ceramic relief Pensées de pinceau (‘Brush thoughts’) from 1998, which, along with several smaller reliefs by these same artists, constitute one wall of the museum’s courtyard. Another significant exterior work is Jean Dubuffet’s relief, Ephoké, which covers the wall opposite.
The museum also owns a collection of recent Eastern European and Russian art, primarily by artists who had to work secretly, owing to government regime repression of certain forms of artistic expression when Europe was still divided into East and West.

Works on paper
The museum’s total holdings of works on paper come to over 13,000 pieces. About ⅓ belong to Asger Jorn’s portion of the collection, and ⅔ have been added since. The latter include nearly complete collections of the graphic output of Aksel Jørgensen, Søren Hjorth Nielsen, Henry Nielsen, Reidar Magnus and Per Kirkeby, among others. Furthermore, Holger J. Jensen and Jørgen Rømer represent the tradition of fine Danish graphic art, as does Erik Hagens, whose collected production of posters and graphic works is also found in the museum.

Extending Asger Jorn’s belief that an artist could be as well-represented by a collection of works on paper as by the more expensive paintings, the selection of such pieces has made it possible to acquire the work of artists such as Edvard Munch, who was Jorn’s Nordic role model, Lovis Corinth, A. R. Penck, Georg Baselitz and Holger Bunk (all from Germany) and Raymond Pettibon (USA).