Asger Jorn: "Gofs-Pof". Signed Asger J. 43. Oil on canvas. 83.5 x 100 cm. Estimate: DKK 600.000-800.000.

Themed auction: CoBrA

76 years have passed since a group of progressive artists founded the CoBrA movement at Café Notre Dame in Paris. Together with Bonhams we will host a magnificent auction with CoBrA art – both live and online – focussing on one of the most pioneering art movements of the 20th century.

We now place the spotlight on one of the most groundbreaking artistic fellowships. At the Live Auction on 3 December 5 pm at Nørgaardsvej 3 in Lyngby and the following Online Auction on 10 December at bruun-rasmussen.dk we will present an impressive selection of art by all the most significant artist from the CoBra movement.

At the preview on 28 November to 1 December, we’ll be exhibiting all the works from the two auctions, and our art specialist and auctioneer Niels Raben will give a talk about CoBrA on Saturday 30 November at 2 pm. Everyone is welcome.

“To be able to break apart and grow back together again in a better way than before: That’s the truly difficult thing to do in art.”
Asger Jorn

CoBrA 1948-51

The two auctions will highlight the creativity, community, spontaneity and experimental approach to art that represent the core ideas of CoBrA. The movement was established in 1948 by a group of artists of different nationalities. After the horrors of the two world wars, CoBrA's ideology emerged as a desire to reform society, transcend conventions and create a better world for humanity to thrive in. Art was considered a means to this change. All previously held truths had to be broken down in the attempt to create a new kind of art.

CoBrA was thus born out of a desire to break down existing structures in society. The artists wanted to start afresh, and all previously established truths therefore had to be questioned to create a universal idiom that could help unite post-war Europe. They did away with the perception of the artist as an isolated genius – the artist should instead be an active part of society and create art that could influence people to move in a new and better direction. By its very nature, CoBrA was therefore critically and politically engaged.

Corneille: "Les insectes en délire", 1947. Signed Corneille 47. Oil on canvas. 85 x 65 cm. Estimate: DKK 1.000,000-1.200,000.

In November 1948, a small group of artists from Denmark, Belgium and the Netherlands met at Hotel Notre Dame’s café in Paris. The artists included Asger Jorn, Christian Dotremont, Karel Appel and Corneille, who all shared the same thoughts on the role of art in society. Together, they founded the legendary art group with the powerful name of CoBrA – formed by the initials of the artists’ hometowns of Copenhagen, Brussels and Amsterdam. The group also used the cobra snake as a symbol for their agenda, because they wanted to be seen as poisonous and aggressive in their attempts to break down the structures of the bourgeoisie, the norms of the time, propriety and capitalism. Seen in a larger perspective, the snake in many Western and non-Western mythologies is also the symbol of the cosmos, which fits with CoBrA’s openness towards the liberated societies post World War II, as well as the past and the future and new ways of thinking.

Asger Jorn: "L'irrationel incliné", 1970. Signed Jorn. Oil on canvas. 81 x 65 cm. Estimate: DKK 1.200,000.

An Artistic Revolution

It was through the unconscious, the imaginative and the spontaneous that the artists found their way to the new, unspoiled and liberated art form that they sought. They drew on inspiration from children’s drawings, mythologies and primitive folk art. CoBrA’s imaginative and wide-ranging expression was distilled through art that transcended all previous boundaries. Their experimental approach to art also meant that virtually every conceivable medium was used – from painting, sculptures and ceramics to prints and poetry. Recurring features across the works of the group were strong colours, strange bird creatures and figures that uneasily and insistently twist and turn in front of us viewers.

The artists’ central contribution to art history was the development of the spontaneous-abstract painting, which contained the notion of a living and liberating art working for the betterment of society. On paper, the group was only active from the end of 1948 until 1951, but the name followed the participating artists for the rest of their careers and touches a large number of other artists across Europe. Thus, although the formal period is short, the spontaneous and expressive approach to art defines the work of many artists across national borders and generations.

Pierre Alechinsky: "Fête d'Ensor". Signed Alechinsky VI 1963. Oil on canvas. 138 x 134 cm. Estimate: DKK 1.500,000.

Pierre Alechinsky: "Sur feuille volante". Signed Alechinsky 1990. Watercolour on paper. Sheet size 44 x 53 cm. (Price realised 110,000 DKK)

CoBrA grew out of two world wars, where a sense of balance at the global level had to be restored and the wounds healed. It was the sense of confinement and the accumulated longing for new sceneries following the war that blew the lid off the energy and imagination of an approach to art that transcended all boundaries. It was once again possible to travel freely and collaborate on developing dreams and formulating visions for a new world. CoBrA artists were connected in both words and deeds, and they became the guarantors of an artistic revolution in Europe. CoBrA’s colourful energy explosion is thus eternally relevant and reminds us that art, mobility, peace and freedom are privileges that we cannot take for granted, but which are worth fighting for in all contexts of life – including the world of art.

Live Auction

CoBrA & Modern Art

Tuesday 3 December 5 pm

View the entire collection

Online Auction

CoBrA

Tuesday 10 December 7 pm

View all items

Digital catalogue

CoBrA & modern art

View the digital catalogue online

An International Community of Artists

Asger Jorn – a Reckless Rebel

The Danish artist Asger Jorn (1914-73) is a central figure of post-war European avant-garde art. He was not only the leading force behind CoBrA – with his radical devil-may-care attitude and big ego he also became the group’s artistic rebel.