Jorn, Asger. The Final Years 1965-73.
Jorn, Asger. The Final Years 1965-73.
Atkins, Guy. Asger Jorn: The Final Years 1965-73. 1980, London, Lund Humphries, 1st edition, large 4to, 271 pages, 676 illustrations, 37 in color, mounted. The third volume of this important catalogue raisonné by The Cobra group's most important and influential artist, hardcover, dust jacket, profusely illustrated, in fine condition $500
This volume completes the detailed study of Jorn's life and work which was begun over 40 years ago. Jorn in Scandinavia appeared in 1968 after seven years of preparation. It was followed in 1977 by Asger Jorn: The Crucial Years, 1954-1964.
The illustrated oeuvre catalogue in three volumes comprises over 2,000 items. The present book contains 676 illustrations of which 37 are in colour and there is an appendix with records of earlier pictures which had, at the time of publication, come to light. A number of forgeries, mostly from Italian sources, have been exposed in this volume. The bibliography covers not only books and articles, but also catalogues of public and private collections, exhibitions and auctions.
The text describes Jorn's main preoccupation during the last eight years of his life, including his plans for rehousing the Silkeborg Museum of Art and his research into the imagery surrounding the hero figure of Theodoric the Great (c.453-526 A.D.) who reappeared in medieval poetry and legend as Dietrich von Bern. Jorn's study of Theodoric was published posthumously.
The two most creative phases under review in this volume both occurred near the end of the artist's life. The year 1970 saw a renewal of his serious and almost exclusive dedication to painting, after the many distractions of the previous years. The result of this newly found concentration was a sequence of paintings of the highest order, some of which are seen on the walls of his Colombes studio, reproduced on the book jacket.
In 1972, Jorn turned, for the first time, to sculpture in bronze and marble. His major achievement as a sculptor during this short but important phase is described in a chapter contributed by Ursula Lehmann-Brockhaus. Two other chapters, written by the Cambridge art historian Frank Whitford, evaluate the artist's output in acrylics and collages.
An indispensible reference on the most important member of The Cobra group.
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