Småting 1940

Editor: We’re looking at Asger Jorn’s “Småting” from 1940, an oil painting. I’m immediately struck by how the bright, almost childlike colours are arranged in a chaotic yet balanced way. It’s visually quite stimulating. What do you see in this piece from a formal perspective? Curator: Indeed. The initial response is often to the vibrancy, yet formalism draws us into the underlying structure. Observe how Jorn employs colour not to mimic reality, but as a compositional tool. Do you perceive the interplay between warm and cool tones, and how it creates spatial tension within the picture plane? Editor: I do. The greens and blues seem to recede, while the reds and yellows leap forward, even though they’re all fairly flatly applied. Curator: Precisely. Jorn’s application of paint is also crucial. The textures, however subtle, are far from uniform. Consider the directionality of brushstrokes, creating vectors that guide our eyes through the composition. Notice how they build form despite the absence of representational imagery. The colour and brushwork contribute to a dynamic field of shapes. Where does your eye linger and why? Editor: I keep going back to the central cluster of green shapes – there's a sort of energy concentrated there. Curator: And that concentration is not accidental, I would suggest, as Jorn creates hierarchies within seeming abstraction. He's less concerned with pure representation and more focused on how the elements of art, colour, line, form and brushwork function in their own terms. What would you say Jorn aimed to express, even without direct imagery? Editor: I think he was striving to capture movement and maybe a certain mood through the pure relationship between forms and colours themselves. Curator: Indeed. In allowing the forms to find their relationships and the colors to guide us, he captures something akin to music and its potential to reach beyond our rational selves. We can reflect on how he successfully explores the power of the abstract to touch on deeper emotions.