WAR HORSES: Helhesten and the Danish Avant-Garde During World War II = Helhesten og den danske avantgarde under Anden Verdenskrig

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War Horses: Helhesten and the Danish Avant-Garde During World War II This exhibition is the first to explore the history and significance of the accomplishments of Danish artists working during the Nazi occupation of their country (1940-45), who called themselves Helhesten, such as Ejler Bille (1910-2004), Egill Jacobsen (1910-1998), Asger Jorn (1914-1973), and Carl-Henning Pedersen (1913-2007), among others. It explores their invention of an art of resistance filled with colorful, expressive, abstract forms, which was remarkably similar to and concurrent with that of the American Abstract Expressionists, about which Helhesten artists had no knowledge. They also daringly exhibited their subversive work and published it and their controversial, communal ideas in the journal they produced Helhesten. As a result, they fueled the emergence of the international avant-garde art movement Cobra (1948-1951), which they became part of. Cobra greatly influenced the development of European modern art after World War II. The exhibition includes over 100 works and reconstructs for the first time the most important exhibition these artists staged in Denmark during the war, 13 Artists in a Tent (1941). It draws heavily from NSU Art Museum s exceptional collection of Helhesten and Cobra art, the largest in America, given to the Museum in 1988 by Meyer and Golda Marks. It was organized by NSU Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale and the Carl-Henning Pedersen & Else Alfelts Museum, Herning, where it will travel, and by guest curator, Kerry Greaves, Novo Nordisk Foundation Mads Øvlisen Postdoctoral Researcher at the Department of Arts and Cultural Studies, University of Copenhagen.
Original languageMultiple languages
Place of PublicationFort Lauderdale, FL
PublisherNSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale
Number of pages112
ISBN (Print)9780990506317
Publication statusPublished - 1 May 2015

Bibliographical note

Parallel english and danish text

ID: 162075735