Born in Denmark, Jorn studied during the 1930s with Leg'er and Le Corbusier, but after the Second World War he abandoned formal painting for an Expressionist style. He not only painted, but also acted as the chief theorist of the COBRA movement founded in 1948 in Brussels and wrote serious essays about the origins of the art impulse.

JORN'S THOUGHTS ON ART

"People often ask me what I hope to achieve by my writings. They tell me that my intentions are not always very clear. But I am not aware of having any very definite intentions in this matter. When my intentions are too clear, it makes me feel rather sad. One reason why I write is to oppose any clear-cut schemes or directives about art, whether the motives are moral, scientific, or apparently liberal: like the attempt to free art by cutting it off from the rest of human activity.

The painter's relation to literature is that of a hostile accomplice, "hostile because of the risk of becoming literary, '~accomplice" because painting cannot exist without the inspiration of literature; but painting goes adrift if it fails to obey the inherent laws of painting.

Anything really new is repulsive because it is abnormal and unreasonable. Real ugliness is just as rare as real beauty. Tension in a work of art is negative-positive: repulsive-attractive, ugly-beautiful. If one of these poles is removed, only boredom is left.

A creative train of thought is set off by: the unexpected, the unknown, the accidental, the disorderly, the absurd, the impossible.

In every real experiment there is a moment of zero predictability.

Even the most faithful copy of a work of art involves a loss of tension. The reason is simple. During every really creative act, the artist finds himself homeless (depayse'). To overcome this state he has to call up his last reserves of strength. This mobilization of all his creative and formal resources, this passionate struggle with the medium, cannot be imitated. It is every man for himself. This explains the magic power of art." [1 964]

INTRODUCTION    WHAT ART IS   SPIRIT OF ART   REFLECTIONS BY ARTISTS     MY WORKS OF ART