Asger Jorn: Quotes about art

Asger Jorn was Danish artist. Explore interesting quotes on art.

Asger Jorn: 96 quotes0 likes

“If one tries to understand the position of art today, one must also try to understand the conditions that have created the development of our perception of art and our perception of the relation to the individual and to society. The artist takes an active part in the campaign to deepen this our knowledge of the basis of our existence, the basis which, for him, makes possible an artistic creation. The artist's interest cannot be restricted to a single field; he must seek the highest perception of everything, of the whole and its details. Nothing can be sacred to him, because everything has become important to him.”

1940 - 1948, Intimate Banalities' (1941)

“This is not an objective, historical or psychological evaluation of Danish experimental art and its historical roots, but an ideological and artistic, collective representation of our own work, thoughts, and ideas. It shows how we ourselves view our work and our way of working, and considers which of the many traditions that make up our foundation we feel connected to.”

from Jorn's 'Notebook', containing the draft for a book on Danish experimental art (1948)
1949 - 1958, Various sources

“We are not talking about a new cognition in relation to Abstract art, rather a new area of cognition... This is where abstract art steps in, in a stronger sense of life, a stronger contact with the growing life, a feeling of the pulsation of life and growth in oneself, an activation of deep-seated powers a staple vitality far deeper than our cognition, not instead of science but inspired by it.”

Quote by Jorn, after Egill Jacobson's exhibition in Kunstforeningen (1945)
1940 - 1948, Various sources

“The law of aesthetics is the same as the law for our desire… Need says: "You must eat." Aesthetics says: "You can do it in a thousand different ways." Ethics: "You need a woman." Aesthetics: "Which woman do you want?" Thus the purpose of art is first and foremost ethical than aesthetic — even when the wish becomes need. The goal changes from the general to the individual from need to wish, from ethics to aesthetics.”

1949 - 1958, Speech to the Penguins' (1949)