Description
Book SynopsisA leading figure of the postwar avant-garde, Danish artist Asger Jorn has long been recognized for his founding contributions to the Cobra and Situationist International movements - yet art historical scholarship on Jorn has been sparse, particularly in English. This study corrects that imbalance, offering a synthetic account of the essential phases of this prolific artist's career. It addresses his works in various media alongside his extensive writings and his collaborations with various artists'' groups from the 1940s through the mid-1960s. Situating Jorn''s work in an international, post-Second World War context, Karen Kurczynski reframes our understanding of the 1950s, away from the Abstract-Expressionist focus on individual expression, toward a more open-ended conception of art as a public engagement with contemporary culture and politics. Kurczynski engages with issues of interest to twenty-first-century artists and scholars, highlighting Jorn''s proposition that the sensory ad
Trade Review'... provides a detailed analysis of Jorn's theory and his negotiation of the fractured landscape of the post-war avant-garde.' The Art Newspaper
Table of ContentsContents: Introductory reflections: Jorn’s kitsch-avant-garde; Spontaneous myths; Communal expressions; Material visions; Jubilant critiques; Authentic ironies; Conclusion: new legacies; Bibliography; Index.
