CoBrA at 70

One of the headlines at our 70th anniversary auction is CoBrA, which we celebrate with an exceptionally large selection of work from the key members of the art group as well as other artists with connections to CoBrA. This CoBrA auction takes place on Tuesday 4 December and Wednesday 5 December at Bredgade 33 in Copenhagen. During the preview on Friday 23 November, director of Museum Jorn, Jacob Thage, will give a presentation entitled "CoBrA 70 Years – Myth and Reality” at 4 pm. The lecture will be held in Danish, but everyone is welcome!

CoBrA in Ruins

The author and art critic Bent Irve has written this fitting description of the history of the CoBrA-movement:

"CoBrA lay as a shattered ruin, while Christian Dotremont and I despaired and with mutual mistrust lay next to each other on beds at the Silkeborg Sanatorium and commented on what had happened," wrote Asger Jorn in the preface to the 1963 edition of his book "Held og Hasard" (Luck and Chance). He added: "None of us dreamed that we had, after all, created something unique." The two gentlemen were certainly not made aware of this fact for some time. After CoBrA disbanded in 1951, a couple of years passed where oblivion seemed to be the final destination for the group. CoBrA was dead, finished, gone. But gradually an interest in the group’s artwork began to sprout again, and in the 1960s a new generation of CoBrA artists emerged. They rushed forward like resistance fighters after the war was over.

A Product of the Second World War

Although CoBrA was initially founded in 1948, three years after the end of the Second World War, the group was still a product of the war since it was empathy and the accumulated desire to roam free that would release the energy and imagination of an artistic idiom that crossed all borders. But otherwise, it was through the forced limitations that CoBrA found its roots, at least when it came to the Danish artists in the group. When travelling abroad was not an option, you had to focus on domestic cultural values instead. And in the art magazine "Helhesten" (Hel Horse), which was published during the war, the later CoBrA artists presented their artistic inspirations and starting points. Here they acknowledged their interest in art from antiquity, Nordic folk art, ethnographic art, calligraphy and children's drawings.

The Spontaneous and Imaginative Art Survives

One can say that CoBrA art culminated with the disbandment of CoBrA in 1951. As the number of opportunistic followers flourished over the course of the next quarter of a century, it appeared as if CoBrA would die of artistic dilution. But strangely enough, the artwork connected to the group has managed to survive both its successes and failures and now stands as an interesting chapter in Northern European art history, where the spontaneous and imaginative art seems to have a special place among the people.

Today, there is not much inspiration from CoBrA to be found in Danish contemporary art, where we are probably as far away from the style as you can come. However, this has only meant that you can now see the foundational qualities of CoBrA art in a clearer light than when the excitement obscured the perception. Today, of course, we are celebrating CoBrA's 70 years. We do so with many examples of an understanding of art that is a refreshing alternative to the dominating view.

Auction: Tuesday 4 December at 4 pm and Wednesday 5 December 2 pm at Bredgade 33 in Copenhagen

Preview: 21-26 November at the same address
 

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View all the CoBrA lots at our online auction 1849
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