In 2014, Asger Jorns L’offre et la demande, 1969, was included in the Asger Jorn exhibition Restless Rebel at SMK, National Gallery of Denmark. It was also featured in the exhibition of Jorn’s main works at the Guggenheim in New York in 1982. In November 2014, with funding from the New Carlsberg Foundation, KUNSTEN was able to purchase the painting at auction in Amsterdam.
KUNSTEN’s collection includes many works by Asger Jorn – 64 in total, including 45 paintings. The paintings date from 1939-1955, while the collection was lacking later works by Asger Jorn. The purchase of L’offre et la demande fills this gap. The work is exemplary of Jorn’s late expressive paintings and therefore an important piece for KUNSTEN to own, as the museum’s director, Gitte Ørskou, explains:
‘In this painting, we encounter many of the artistic effects Jorn used in his later years, including the direct application of paint straight from the tube to the canvas. His methods assume an even fiercer and more chaotic character, and the abstraction seems more condensed than before.’
The painting, which seems to be dominated by a mask-like, diabolical figure, balances between complete abstraction and traces of figuration, while the margins feature coloured fields with a calmer quality in contrast to the raging centre.
‘This shift of pace in the painting is one of Jorn’s most prominent characteristics,’ says Gitte Ørskou.
In the 1960s, Asger Jorn played a key role in the politically oriented avant-garde art scene, in part through collaborative projects with Situationist International, but he maintained an ongoing focus on painting, as exemplified by L’offre et la demande. Asger Jorn passed away in 1973.
KUNSTEN is currently closed for extensive renovation and due to reopen in autumn 2015, when the new Jorn painting will be on display at the museum.
