BIOGRAPHY
(b Vejrum, Jutland, 3 March 1914; d ?rhus, 1 May 1973). Danish painter, printmaker, decorative artist, ceramicist, sculptor and writer, also active in France. His personality and work exerted a decisive influence on his contemporaries, and he is recognized as one of the most important Scandinavian artists since Edvard Munch.
He grew up in the provincial town of Silkeborg, Jutland, but after qualifying as a teacher in 1935 he went to Paris to study under Fernand L?ger. He also worked as an assistant to Le Corbusier in 1937 during the Exposition Universelle. In 1938 he held his first exhibition in Copenhagen, with Pierre Wema?re (b 1913). Jorn had to return to Denmark shortly before the outbreak of World War II. In 1941 he set up Helhesten, a magazine dealing with art, literature and archaeology.
Among its contributors were Ejler Bille, Henry Heerup, Egill Jacobsen and Carl-Henning Pedersen; they developed a concept of spontaneous-abstract art, based partly on the pioneer work of Richard Mortensen and Ejler Bille during the 1930s.