Louisiana Museum of Modern Art
Asger Jorn – Le futur du passé (1971)
- Specifications
- Description
- The Maker
- Brand:Louisiana Museum of Modern Art Denmark
- Country: Printed in Denmark
- SKU: LA-105520-FJ
- Material: Printed on paper.
- Dimensions:33.1" x 23.4" (A1)
Asger Jorn's talent spans far and wide and over almost all genres, and in this woodcut you can feel the inspiration from both Japan and Edvard Munch.
Asger Jorn's pictures are about things that we all think about: Life, death, love and happiness. His pictures are populated by imaginary beings who, like us, are born and die, love, cry, laugh, etc.
Jorn was a boundary-crossing artist in every way—both in terms of the international art scene, the COBRA movement, the Situationist International and much more, but also in relation to his thoughts on the artist's position in society.
Asger Jorn's challenges to the substance of art, to the materials, were legendary and lifelong. He worked with and processed all known categories within the visual arts, and had a special eye for breaking down categorizations, if that was even possible for him.
Jorn was critical of an elevated perception of art, and he deliberately challenged fine culture with banality, irony, humor and anti-aesthetics.
Like the generation of post-war artists, Asger Jorn insisted on the dream of community, socialism and on a universal, abstract imagery that could help unite war-torn Europe.
From the beginning, the founder, Knud W. Jensen, intended for the museum to be a home for modern Danish art. But after only a few years he changed course, and instead of being a predominantly Danish collection, Louisiana became an international museum with many internationally renowned works.
Louisiana's close contact and collaboration with the international arts and cultural milieu has since been one of the museum's greatest strengths. And also one of the main reasons that it has been possible for Louisiana to present an exhibition program that has resonated so strongly with the public over the years. Louisiana has thus achieved a standing as one of the world's most respected exhibition venues, and in the future, it will be able to attract exhibitions and artists at a level that few other museums—either in Denmark or abroad—can match.
Knud W. Jensen put into action many of the period's visionary ideas about modern museum operation, including a desire for art to have a wide audience. It has always been the view at Louisiana that art is not just for an elite but includes experiences and visions for the many.
Why is it called Louisiana?
Many people wonder about the name of the museum. The short explanation is this—a nobleman and his three wives.
Knud W. Jensen chose to "take over" the name of the country house that he later converted to a museum. The property had been built and named in 1855 by Alexander Brun (1814-93), who was an officer and Master of the Royal Hunt and who married three women who were all named Louise.
Here at Louisiana, he was a pioneer in beekeeping and the cultivation of fruit trees.
From the beginning, it was Knud W. Jensen's vision to create a museum with soul, where the public could encounter artwork—not as something pretentious, but rather something that spoke directly to the viewer. And he emphasized the need for "supplementary content" that could help bring alive and enrich the environment: The more opportunities for experience that the program offers, the more Louisiana lives up to its idea—to be a 'musical meeting place' and a milieu that is engaged in contemporary life.
—Knud W. Jensen
