Asger Jorn Museum, Silkeborg

On Tuesday, July 17th,we had a lovely drive through Bjerringbro among other towns to Silkeborg, home of the painter and COBRA movement founder, Asger Jorn. It is set on a beautiful piece of land on the Gudenaa, near the Kayak Club and a pleasure garden of sorts with a bocce (sp?) ball course, playground and ice cream kiosk. I've been here before but the rest of the family had not, so it seemed a good half-day outing with lunch.

A piece I don;t remember so well from last time bowled me over on this visit - the Dubuffet ceramic mural affixed to the facade of the museum.

Dubuffet Mural at Jorn Museum

Entrance Jorn Museum

While Asger Jorn is not my favorite Danish artist, he did work in an impressive range of media and did hang with some of the greats - Leger, Dubuffet, Arp, Alechinsky - and they are all represented in the museum. But I think my problem with Jorn comes from knowing mostly his "master" paintings in the canon, and not the oil sketches, and prints, ceramics, and tapestries that I loved seeing in Silkeborg. I should remember that when looking at other artists that I have decided about years ago - to look more closely at their "secondary" work.

And, of course, no matter what's on the walls, every Danish museum is beautifully presented and furnished. The Jorn Museum also had gorgeous wooden block flooring.

Painting gallery in Jorn Museum

Two of my favorite pieces from the visit:

Jorn oil sketch. This is small! Maybe 18 x 18"

Detail of tapestry

Tapestry commissioned by Aarhus Stadtskole ( 8  x  50 feet?)

This is a terrible photo, but the room is necessarily dark. Jorn designed and wove this in France in collaboration with Pierre Alechinsky and others. It is remarkable if you get up really close and enjoy the quality of the weaving and the freedom of the abstraction.