Click to enlarge.
Click to enlarge.
To détourn is to modernize, according to Asger Jorn, and this piece’s modernist elements are emblematic of a desire to revolutionize common interaction with art. The mode of production at play in his détourned painting Big Fuck to the Cardinal of America is applying paint over a found work–in this case a typical example of medieval portraiture.
The found painting may or may not treat a cardinal, but the underlying portrait signals a learned man. The subject holds a book upright, possibly to the heavens, while leaning his left hand outside the frame on more books. The figure’s clothing drapes in a royal and relaxed manner in contrast to the self-assurance of his posture.
As for Jorn’s additions, he fabricates strong patches of color that confuse its denoting items. In the Cubist tradition, Jorn utilizes the same beige for a portion of the cardinal’s beard as well as his skin tone. Jorn deploys a garish yellow in adjusting the cardinal’s soft peach robe and creating a mitre on his head. The other instances of self-assertive color patches, such as unrealistic maroon hair and an unidentifiable background, make the medium of paint tangible.
Jorn utilizes very little paint in comparison to the canvas’s size. Yet the amount is enough to self-reflexively communicate the artist’s intentions. The sanguine red reading as the cardinal’s hair accumulates such that the paint itself, not the addition of white, adds dimension and light. The paint is the artistic means as Jorn moves away from the creation of illusion.
The subdued colors of the original portrait and the few patches of jarring color contrast disharmoniously. His additions change the meaning of the painting from the likeness depiction of a dignified man to a comical depiction of a man dressed as a cardinal–or a cardinal himself. The point is that the man now escapes identification. In his reinterpretation, Jorn allows man to dress up and become unrecognizable entirely. This is at the cost of a messy costume (beard, face, and mitre become one) and a chaotic environment (the jumbled colors of the right side contest the clean, dignified black of the found work).
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In another, lesser-known détourned painting, Asger Jorn alters a portrait of two young girls. More of Jorn’s painting style appears on this canvas in comparison to Big Fuck to the Cardinal of America. He utilizes a new chaotic background to hide the long hair. In addition, large patches of colors and strategic outlines change the clothing from brown dresses to more convincing male outfits, pants and overalls.
Jorn grants the girl, or now man, on the left a yellow beard–a yellow color that struggles to match with the original hair color. The girl/man on the left suffers from a paint-splattered face likely to disguise its feminine indicators. As mentioned, the painting’s background is in the Expressionist style. It lacks figural elements and refuses identification. It comprises outlines and color; deliberate but entirely abstract.
Looking past the formal considerations, the act of converting a found portrait of two young girls into some semblance of two men amidst an energetic environment is a tense example of détournement, especially considering the title: Brotherhood Above All. Here we have another consideration of roles, making a mockery of society, as we know it. Jorn opines the following argument with his brilliant détourned painting: the facility of these roles does not make them worthwhile. Thus, we are collectively wasting time bringing these images into fruition.