More about Bjørn Nørgaard

The Horse Sacrifice

The most talked-about happening in Denmark is probably Bjørn Nørgaard’s horse sacrifice from 1970. In a snow-clad field in Northern Zealand, the ageing horse ‘Tulle’ was slaughtered and dissected, and parts of it was placed in jam jars filled with formalin. The ritual slaughter took place to the accompaniment of a violin and poems read by Lene Adler Pedersen while she was carrying a cross. Veiled in the mantle of a mythical ritual, the action brought about the transformation of a living organism into concrete matter, preserved through the conservation process. The happening gave rise to a heated debate and soon became a political issue.

Eks-Skolen

The exploration of materials seen in the Horse Sacrifice followed in the footsteps of several similar experiments conducted by Bjørn Nørgaard at Eks-Skolen. The school was formed as an alternative to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, created because the founders did not think that the Academy had kept up with the times. At Eks- Skolen more attention was focused on the process than on the product. Bjørn Nørgaard actually wanted to be a draughtsman and a painter, but soon abandoned these plans in favour of sculpture. In order to find a sculptural idiom that was entirely his, he embarked on a journey of investigating and testing materials. One example would be Skulpturel Demonstration (Sculptural Demonstration) from 1966. Here, his feet were encased in plaster, and he subsequently stomped around in his sheathed feet in order to test the feel of the contact between space and body. The happening was witnessed by an audience that included Joseph Beuys, the German professor and performance artist. He found Bjørn Nørgaard’s approach interesting and invited him to Dusseldorf, where Nørgaard took part in one of Beuys´ actions. The happening as a mode of expression became a prominent aspect of Bjørn Nørgaard’s art in the 1960s and 1970s. Choosing this particular vein of expression might signify that the artist regarded more conventional art forms as having been emptied of potential. What is more, happenings offered the scope for creating a space where artists could meet across the confines of genre, creating art together. To this day, Bjørn Nørgaard still employs happenings or actions as an art form.

Tableaux

Without being officially disbanded, the working collective of Eks-Skolen came to an end in the 1970s. Bjørn Nørgaard continued his artistic endeavours alone or together with artists such as Lene Adler Pedersen, Per Kirkeby, and Ursula Reuter Christiansen. During this period he increasingly began to mine our cultural history and art history for materials. History became the matter from which Bjørn Nørgaard’s works were created, employed in his art to discuss the present. He created a large number of sculptural installations or tableaux, amongst these Marat – Who Was Corday (1976). The work is now housed at HEART. In the tableaux, quotes and references from history and historical figures and motifs were intermingled with elements from the artist’s own sphere of experience and from that of his time. While the works should not be regarded as historicist, they recognise that our art is derived from the art of bygone times. Cultural and art history constitutes a vast database of subjects, figures, symbols, and idioms. Bjørn Nørgaard himself calls it ”recycled classicism”.

Ikast

This recycling first began with the work Monument for the city of Ikast (1973), which can be seen at the Frisenborg Park in Ikast. To Bjørn Nørgaard, modern art had reached an end point, and in order to move forward artists must use what the artists of bygone times had produced. The Monument for Ikast is a pyramid placed on a base. Inside the pyramid and around the monument are various everyday objects such as cups, diapers, and washing detergent – but these are no longer the authentic objects originally presented. Today they are cast in bronze.

Decorative work

In 1979 Bjørn Nørgaard received the first of what was to be a comprehensive sequence of commissions for decorations for public venues. The first commission was for the municipal library of Gladsaxe, which amongst other things received a large, ceramic cave in their lobby. The decoration serves as a comment on the architecture of the place while also serving as a reference to the library as a place of stories, new knowledge, cultural heritage, and imagination. The work was followed by decorative work for the Panum Institute, which once again saw Bjørn Nørgaard making use of ceramics. For this commission he created 12 large-scale ceramic figures which Bjørn Nørgaard has called allegorical figures. They feature references to the medical work conducted by the Institute, motifs from anatomy, and incorporate features from indigenous South American art. The projects mentioned here are merely the first in a wide range of decorative commissions completed by Nørgaard all across Denmark, work which can with some justification be said to reach its acme with the commission for the Queen’s tapestries. Bjørn Nørgaard spent twelve years completing the cartoons, i.e. the sketches used as the basis for weaving the tapestries. The tapestries depict events and people that have helped shape the history of Denmark through a thousand years, and the narratives are interspersed with symbols and ornaments. The hanging of the tapestries in the Great Hall at Christiansborg Palace, seat of the Danish Parliament, is logical, but not chronological. Each observer is free to pull together the threads of history as they wish.

Ecclesiastical art

In recent years Bjørn Nørgaard has been asked to carry out a number of works for churches and has illustrated an edition of the Bible as retold by Anna Sophie Seidelin. Working with biblical motifs is nothing new to him. Right from the 1960s upwards his art has included religious motifs. And just as he gathers up materials from the treasure trove of world history, he also pieces together elements from all religions of the world. He has no religious beliefs himself; he thinks that to have so is impossible for modern man. He does, however, perceive the Christian faith as a grand, beautiful idea and regards the church as a significant part of Western culture and thought. That is why he is able to create art for church spaces.

Platforms for discussion

Concurrently with the many decorative commissions Bjørn Nørgaard also creates his own art. He has created a number of large-scale as well as smaller ceramic works, some of them based on figures from Norse mythology. He has also worked with sculpture, wall reliefs, and graphic art. In addition to this, he continues the explorations of various materials which he began within Eks-Skolen. For the EXPO world exhibition in Hannover in 2000 Bjørn Nørgaard created the sculpture group Paradise Genetically Altered. The theme of the exhibition was ”Man, Nature, Technology”, providing Bjørn Nørgaard with the opportunity to discuss topics such as the pros and cons of genetic modification. Once again, his art created a platform for discussion. One characteristic feature of his very diverse oeuvre is his unfailing ability to spark off debate, sometimes to provoke. However, provocation is not an end in itself. If his art provokes, this is because he is an artist who is very much aware of the society of which he is part; an artist who wishes to enter into a dialogue with the world around him. The means employed to initiate that dialogue can seem transgressive to some.

Bjørn Nørgaard – CV – A selection

1947 Born on 21 May in Copenhagen

1964 Enrols at Eks-Skolen in Copenhagen

1966 Contributes to a festival at Galleri 101.

1969 Marries Lene Adler Pedersen

1970 The action ”Horse Sacrifice” is carried out together with Lene Adler Pedersen and Henning Christiansen

1973 Solo show; ”Man har sine klare øjeblikke” (“One Has One’s Lucid Moments”) at Daner-galleriet, Copenhagen

1974 Completes the Ikast monument

1976 Creates ”Marat – Who Was Corday” amongst other works

1977 Receives the three-year stipend from Statens Kunstfond

1979 Commences the decorative work for the library in Gladsaxe

1980 The Eckersberg Medal

1982 Exhibits ”Menneskemuren” (Human Wall) at the Guggenheim in New York. The work is now the property of Statens Museum for Kunst

1985 Appointed professor of sculpture at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen

1985 Commences work on the decorations for the Panum Institute, Copenhagen

1988 Commences work on the cartoons for the tapestries for Christiansborg Palace

1993 Creates the design for new granite paving for Amagertorv, Copenhagen

1994 Carl Nielsen & Anne Marie Carl Nielsen’s stipend

1995 The Prince Eugen Medal

1996 The Thorvaldsen Medal

1999 Creates a new altarpiece for the church in Knebel

1999 Receives the Order of Ingenio et Arti

2000 Paradise Genetically Altered, World Expo, Hannover

2000 Tapestries for HRH Queen Margrethe II, the Great Hall, Christiansborg Palace

2002 Bispebjerg Bakke, residential architecture, 135 flats (with Arkitekterne Boldsen & Holm)

2004 Chasuble, Frederiksberg Slotskirke

2007 Decorative work for Christianskirken, Fredericia

Literature:

Torben Weirup: ”Man har sine klare øjeblikke. En fortælling om Bjørn Nørgaard”. Møntergården, 2000

Troels Andersen: ”Bjørn Nørgaard”. Dansk Nutidskunst 5. Forlaget Palle Fogtdal, 1990

”Ny Dansk Kunsthistorie, bind 9”. Written by Mikkel Bogh. Ed. Peter Michael Hornung. Forlaget Palle Fogtdal,

1996. ”Bjørn Nørgaard. Objekt, Skulptur, Tableau”. Aarhus Kunstmuseum and Eks-Skolens Forlag, 1986.