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拍品专文
The studio photograph taken in Colombes in 1970 (see support illustration 1) shows Jorn surrounded by the canvases that were shortly to go to the exhibition at Galerie Jeanne Bucher in Paris. According to Jorn's biographer and author of the catalogue raissonné, this group of paintings is of one of the peak achievements of his artistic career. 'If 1958 was an annus mirabilis, so was 1970.' (G. Atkins, The final years 1965-1973, p. 25). Central in this photograph, next to the artist, we see L'amère sans amertume.
The exhibition in Paris was titled The Luxury of aestheticism and showed a number of paintings of a larger scale than usual. The title of the exhibition refers, with Jorn's irony, to the essentially greater risk of investment of working on larger canvases. Although size is never a criterion for quality of course, it implies that he felt confident enough to work on large scale paintings. The title L'amère sans amertume (The bitter without the bitterness), is typical for the works of this period, witty word-plays that are not always easily explainable, but always tease the beholder to find the relationship between the words and the image.
Like most Nordic artists who started their career in the first half of the twentieth century, Jorn is clearly influenced by the work of Norwegian painter Edvard Munch (1863-1944). Jorn's early landscapes and portraits already showed a language that was highly related to the works of the great innovator of the North. Even though in the late 1930s and 1940s Jorn's works resemble artists like Fernand Legér (1881-1955) and Joan Miró (1893-1983), Munch is the constant factor throughout his career. L'amère sans amertume can be seen as one of the most direct references to Munch's work. The composition, the way the paint follows the contours and colour captures emotion, shows a striking resemblance to the most iconic of all Munchs paintings: The Scream (see support illustration 2). The similarity of the way the sky in both paintings is depicted is striking as well. Although there is a slightly higher level of abstraction and Jorn's colour pallet is more contemporary, these two paintings are clearly related. Jorn not only understood The Scream: he interpreted it into his own era. Although these are both highly individual paintings, both artists seem to speak the same visual language. Like Munch, Jorn succeeded in capturing a highly personal emotion and making it accessible for the beholder.
The exhibition in Paris was titled The Luxury of aestheticism and showed a number of paintings of a larger scale than usual. The title of the exhibition refers, with Jorn's irony, to the essentially greater risk of investment of working on larger canvases. Although size is never a criterion for quality of course, it implies that he felt confident enough to work on large scale paintings. The title L'amère sans amertume (The bitter without the bitterness), is typical for the works of this period, witty word-plays that are not always easily explainable, but always tease the beholder to find the relationship between the words and the image.
Like most Nordic artists who started their career in the first half of the twentieth century, Jorn is clearly influenced by the work of Norwegian painter Edvard Munch (1863-1944). Jorn's early landscapes and portraits already showed a language that was highly related to the works of the great innovator of the North. Even though in the late 1930s and 1940s Jorn's works resemble artists like Fernand Legér (1881-1955) and Joan Miró (1893-1983), Munch is the constant factor throughout his career. L'amère sans amertume can be seen as one of the most direct references to Munch's work. The composition, the way the paint follows the contours and colour captures emotion, shows a striking resemblance to the most iconic of all Munchs paintings: The Scream (see support illustration 2). The similarity of the way the sky in both paintings is depicted is striking as well. Although there is a slightly higher level of abstraction and Jorn's colour pallet is more contemporary, these two paintings are clearly related. Jorn not only understood The Scream: he interpreted it into his own era. Although these are both highly individual paintings, both artists seem to speak the same visual language. Like Munch, Jorn succeeded in capturing a highly personal emotion and making it accessible for the beholder.