Title: Etudes et surprises (1971)

Poster size: W: 59.4 x H: 84.1 cm (A1)

Gallery original poster

This Louisiana poster uses Asger Jorn's 1971 collection Etudes et surprises. The French title can be understood as “Practice and Surprise” or “Research and Surprise.” The Louisiana product page states that the collection presents a “finer, more sensual” side of Jorn that is less visible.

This is important, because the familiar Jorn is usually rough, wild, and grotesquely animated; but Etudes et surprises is relatively soft, and lines and color blocks are more like natural occurrences on paper. Rather than pursuing only outbursts, as typical of Abstract Expressionism, it carries with it an impromptu notebook, dream sketch, bodily sensation, and poetic temperament.

The form in the picture may seem abstract, but it still feels like some kind of organic life: like a face, like a body, like a plant, like an unfinished imaginary creature. This echoes Louisiana's description of Jorn: his images of life, death, love, and happiness, often inhabited by imaginary beings, who are born like people, die, love, cry, and laugh.

From the point of view of the collection and indoor display, the charm of this work is that it retains Jorn's avant-garde spirit, but it is easier to fit into the home space than many of his strong and rough works. It has the ideology of abstract art, but also has soft lines and color rhythms, which is suitable for modern, Nordic, and artistic spaces.

Original poster

Asger Jorn (1914–1973) was one of Denmark's most important twentieth-century artists and a central figure in postwar European avant-garde art. Beyond painting, he worked in ceramics, prints, sculpture, artist's books and theoretical writing, resisting any single category. Louisiana Museum likewise describes him as a central figure in twentieth-century Danish art and emphasizes the special place his work holds in its collection.

Jorn's most important place in art history is as a co-founder of the avant-garde CoBrA movement. Its name combines Copenhagen, Brussels and Amsterdam. CoBrA sought a postwar European expression grounded in freedom, intuition, childlike vision, primal energy and spontaneity, explaining the wild, humorous, grotesque and intensely vital qualities of Jorn's work. The Art Story likewise identifies him as a co-founder of CoBrA in 1948.

In addition to CoBrA, Jorn was involved in Situationist International and worked closely with Guy Debord and others. Museum Jorn’s introduction specifically notes that he was a key driving force behind artistic and intellectual groups including Helhesten, CoBrA, MIBI, and Situationist International. This makes him more than an artist who “painted wildly”: he was someone who thought about art, politics, society, and ways of living together.

His art often moves between abstraction and figuration: an image may resemble a monster, mythical creature, or face, or it may simply be a clash of colors and lines. Britannica describes his style as influenced by Expressionists and modern artists such as James Ensor and Paul Klee, often using intense colors and distorted forms to create an emotional impact.

Simply put, Asger Jorn is the kind of artist who was “against refinement and authority, yet deeply versed in art.” He deliberately challenged the decorum of high art, bringing humor, roughness, absurdity, childlike playfulness, and a rebellious spirit into painting. Louisiana’s product page also notes that he criticized the elevation of art to an exalted status and challenged refined culture through the ordinary, satire, humor, and anti-aesthetics.