January 19 - May 19, 2013
"Be spontaneous so that everything inside you is transferred to the picture. If you understand how to act out the creative potential of your imagination, then you will also realise that art can not be created through rational schemes. To make the life inside you appear, your creativity must be rooted in your inmost motives."
(Carl-Henning Pedersen)
Spontaneous painting was an artistic principle for Else Alfelt as well as for Carl-Henning Pedersen. Else Alfelt began her career as a naturalistic painter, but shortly after meeting Carl-Henning Pedersen in 1933 they both embraced the ideas and techniques of spontaneous-abstract painting.
Both artists were convinced that a spontaneous and fee art could help pave the way for a free society. Their first experiments with the spontaneous approach were attempts - inspired by the Surrealist concept of automatism - to compose with random line-drawings on paper without a clear notion of the end result. However, Else Alfelt and Carl-Henning Pedersen quickly developed unique, personal styles and became part of a group of artists who were working intensely with spontaneous expression in the 1940s. Be Spontaneous is an exhibition of some of their most striking work in the field of spontaneous painting.