August 17, 2011 - January 13, 2012
"We join the international art in the struggle for solutions to the new and common artistic and human problems, which have arisen in our time, on the basis of new scientific, psychological, and social results."
(Høst/Harvest, manifesto)
The exhibition takes a closer look at the formative ideas and the spirit of community of the groundbreaking artists' groups and collectives known as Helhesten (The Demon Horse), Høst (Harvest), and the renowned Cobra movement.
Carl-Henning Pedersen and Else Alfelt played a part in several of their own age's most influential artists' coalitions, including Helhesten, Høst, and Cobra. Characteristic for all of them was a cooperative spirit that sought to liberate art from its outdated norms and rules, with the catastrophic experiences of WW2 fresh in mind.
The ambition was to devote oneself perfectly to spontaneity and preferably to achieve the same level of spontaneous expression as children, primitive peoples, or the mentally ill. Thus, the art journal Helhesten featured scientific articles on how to seek artistic inspiration in children's drawings.
Notions such as these were later to resurface in the exhibition coalition known as Høst (Harvest) and in the renowned Cobra movement, which, despite the relative brevity of its existence (1948-51), became widely influential and plays a significant part in international art history.
