October 12, 2012 - January 13, 2013
"My birds are not like birds in the traditional sense. They are imaginary birds of a symbolic character, much like the birds appearing in folk art throughout the ages.
My bird is a variation of the Phoenix which is born from Ragnarok and lays its egg. To me, birds somehow represent the origin of life - and a certain sense of freedom in life."
(Carl-Henning Pedersen)
From the very beginning, birds have taken a prominent place in Carl-Henning Pedersen's imagery as incarnations of the artist himself and as expressions of his changing moods. The Phoenix explores the bird as recurring motif in Carl-Henning Pedersen's art.
Early on, Carl-Henning Pedersen felt a relation to the so-called primitive peoples and their art which he studied during numerous trips to the National Museum in Copenhagen. Here he became fascinated with the bird depictions of African masks and Oceanic art. Back home in his studio he would then weave the colourful birds into his own pictorial world.
During the Second World War Carl-Henning Pedersen insists on the artist's freedom to let imagination reign free. The bird in this period becomes a symbol of freedom, but also of existenstial anxiety and fear. In the post-war years a significant change is detectable in his art. The colour schemes grow brighter, clear blue and yellow dominate the paintings. And the bird undergoes a similar transformation, soaring proudly like the mythological Phoenix.