Asger Jorn

The Timid Proud One

1957

© DACS 2023

License this image

In Tate St Ives

Modern Art and St Ives: Room 3

Artist
Asger Jorn 1914–1973
Original title
Le Timide Orgueilleux
Medium
Oil paint on board
Dimensions
Support: 997 × 806 mm
frame: 1181 × 995 × 75 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Purchased 1966
Reference
T00853

Display caption

Jorn had been a prominent member of CoBrA, a group of northern European artists whose improvisatory approach to painting was intended as a way of liberating their work from repressive bourgeois conventions. Although this painting was made several years after the group disbanded, its child-like style reflects the same principles. The figure embodies some mysterious inner struggle, perhaps reflected in the title. Jorn was a great believer in these kind of opposed dualities. ‘Tension in a work of art is negative-positive: repulsive-attractive, ugly-beautiful. If one of these poles is removed, only boredom is left’, he said.

Gallery label, November 2005

Does this text contain inaccurate information or language that you feel we should improve or change? We would like to hear from you.

Catalogue entry

Asger Jorn b.1914

T00853 Le Timide Orgueilleux (The Timid Proud One) 1957

Inscr.‘Jorn 57’ t.r. and ‘Le Timide Orgueilleux Asger Jorn 57’ on back of millboard.
Oil on millboard, 39¼ x 31¾ (100 x 80).
Purchased from Peter Cochrane (Grant-in-Aid) 1966.
Coll. Purchased by Peter Cochrane from the artist through Arthur Tooth and Sons 1958.
Exh. Arnal et Jorn, Galerie Rive Gauche, Paris, June 1957 (17); The Exploration of Form, Arthur Tooth and Sons, January–February 1958 (7); I.C.A., April–May 1958 (31); Ten International Artists, Norfolk Contemporary Art Society, Norwich, June 1958 (11); Painting and Sculpture of a Decade, Tate Gallery, April–June 1964 (186, repr. p. 31 in colour); Kunsthalle, Basel, October–November 1964 (52); Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, December 1964–January 1965 (57); Louisiana Museum, February 1965 (65).
Lit. Virtus Schade, Asger Jorn, Copenhagen 1965, p. 73 and repr.
Repr. Apollo, LXVII, 1958, p. 89; Art International, V, April 1961, p. 34.

Published in The Tate Gallery Report 1966–1967, London 1967.

CoBrA Situationist International

Explore

You might like

Left Right