Paintings |
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{Most of Jim's art has not yet been professionally photographed, but we're working on it.}
The Bombardment of Kobenhavn by Vice Admiral Lord Nelson in 1801: The Mad Laughter of Courage (1966-67) has been shown twice:
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Picasso to Jorn to Brewton: Guernica, Stalingrad, and Kobenhavn In the course of our research, we found an artist-to-artist link among James Brewton (1930-1967), Asger Jorn (1914-1973), and Pablo Picasso (1881-1973). Discussing his Stalingrad, le non-lieu ou le fou-rire du courage (1957-1960, 1967, 1972; collection Museum Jorn, Silkeborg, DK), Jorn stated the painting was a response to first-hand stories of the World War II battle, as told by his friend Umberto Gambetta. Stalingrad also echoes Picasso's Guernica (1937; collection Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid).
Jorn was studying with Fernand Léger in Paris when Picasso was painting Guernica, and Jorn helped Le Corbusier with his "Temps Nouveaux" pavilion for the World Expo, where Guernica was displayed at the Spanish Pavilion. Jorn visited Picasso in Antibes in 1946; both men were fiercely anti-fascist and surely discussed war, politics and art-making. In 1962-63 and 1965, Brewton spent time with Jorn in Denmark, and the idea for Brewton's Bombardment of Kobenhavn was sparked. All three paintings' rubble-strewn landscapes convey the chaos of battle through the artists' use of angular design driving the eye in many directions, and their monochromatic tones emphasize the indiscriminate death-machines that are used in modern warfare. Each artist expresses a palpable horror of war. In Stalingrad, Jorn's aggressive, whiteish overpainting seems to obliterate everything, yet hints of violence intrude from beneath the snowy-looking miasma. Brewton's Kobenhavn, directly referencing Stalingrad and Guernica, incorporates graffiti, found objects, and battle diagrams to tell the story of the naval battle between England and a Danish-Norwegian alliance. The light bulb, seen at the top left-center of Guernica is an actual working light bulb at the top right-center of Kobenhavn, mottled with grey paint, likely in homage to the series of lightbulb drawings, prints and sculptures by Jasper Johns (b. 1930). |