Asger Jorn and the photographic essay on Scandinavian vandalism

Abstract

This article will examine the work of the Danish painter, potter and sculptor Asger Jorn (1914-1973). Although Asger Jorn is sometimes presented as the Scandinavian exponent of post war Abstract Expressionism, he was really a movement of his own, consciously working against such categorisations, and arguing against abstraction in art. From the beginning of the 1940s onwards Jorn was the initiator of periodicals and movements and always an ardent supplier of manifestos and articles. The best known of these movements are the COBRA-group and the Situationist International. In particular his work in the Scandinavian Institute for Comparative Vandalism and his project "10000 Years of Scandinavian Folk Art" will be discussed.