Asger jorn detourned paintings
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“Strategic Vandalism: The Legacy of Asger Jorn’s Modification Paintings”
In “Strategic Vandalism: The Legacy of Asger Jorn’s Modification Paintings,” curators Axel Heil and Roberto Ohrt framed Jorn’s practice of détournement as a kind of ground zero for various strains of appropriation art. Détournement is a technique that the Situationist International, which Jorn cofounded with the French theorist and filmmaker Guy Debord and others, developed in the late 1950s and ’60s. To détourn something is to give it a new context in order to reroute and subvert its meaning. Jorn created his own version of the tactic in his “Modification” series, which comprises paintings he purchased at flea markets and altered with his own irreverent touches. In the most compelling example in the show, Ainsi on s’Ensor (Out of This World—After Ensor), 1962, he transformed a somber painting of suicide into an especially
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David Black’s Substack
Danish painter and sculptor Asger Oluf Jorn died fifty years ago (1 May 1973), aged 59. He was a founding member of the avant-garde movement COBRA and the Situationist International.
[Asger Jorn. 1963]
Jorn's work and legacy are not appreciated bygd everyone in his homeland. Indeed, a report in ArtForum, May 02, 2022, indicates there are some things rotten in the State of Denmark:
'Danish Situationist Asger Jorn’s iconic 1959 work The Disquieting Duckling was vandalized on April 29 in an attack that was livestreamed by right-wing Facebook page Patrioterne Går Live, which has historically posted anti-Muslim screeds and videos. The widely circulated video seems to show Danish artist Ibi-Pippi Orup Hedegaard affixing his own likeness to the painting, which was on display at the Museum Jorn in Silkeborg, Denmark, and then signing his name on the canvas in black permanent marker. “If you’re around,” he wrote on Facebook, “you can go and admire my
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Situationniste Blog
[JORN, Asger]. Modifications: R.A. Augustinci présente vingt peintures modifiées par ASGER JORN. n.p. [Paris]: n.p. [Galerie Rive Gauche], n.d. [May 1959]. n.p. [16 p. + 4 p.]; ill.; 21 x 18.5 cm.; ill. cover reproducing one of Jorn’s detourned paintings.
Catalog of Asger Jorn’s famed “Modifications” show, which was held under the auspices of R.A. Augustinci at the galerie Rive Gauche in Paris between 6 and 28 May 1959. Twenty paintings were exhibited, nine of which are reproduced here (one in color, serving as the catalog’s cover, and eight in B&W).
Stapled inside is a four-page, French-language text printed on thick yellow stock: “Peinture détournée” (detourned painting). In this short essay, Jorn celebrates the death of painting and advocates for detournement in the visual arts. The text is reproduced in full, both in French and in an English translation, here: http://viemoderne2.blogspot.com/2006/08/pei