Collection: Asger Jorn

Asger Jorn (1914–1973) was a Danish painter, sculptor, ceramicist, and writer, and one of the most significant figures in postwar European avant-garde culture. Co-founder of the CoBrA movement (1948–1951) alongside Karel Appel, Constant, and Corneille, Jorn was central to the development of expressive abstraction, experimental publishing, and collaborative artistic practice across postwar Europe.

In 1957 Jorn became a founding member of the Situationist International alongside Guy Debord, contributing both theoretical writing and visual work to the movement’s critique of spectacle, urbanism, and consumer culture. His practice moved fluidly between painting, political critique, ceramics, artist books, and institutional disruption — including his “modifications” series, in which he overpainted cheap found paintings to produce new works that challenged notions of authorship, value, and artistic hierarchy.

Jorn exhibited widely across Europe throughout the 1950s, 1960s, and early 1970s, and his work is held in major international collections. He died in Aarhus in 1973. This collection brings together printed matter and ephemera connected to Jorn’s exhibitions and institutional presentations.