Linien ii – A Local Avant-Garde Formation in Postwar Denmark
In: A Cultural History of the Avant-Garde in the Nordic Countries 1925-1950Search for other papers by Jens Tang Kristensen in
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Abstract
The diverse and heterogeneous artists’ group Linien ii (1947–1952) was named after the pre-war artists’ group linien (1934–1939). In Danish art history Linien ii has been seen as a group of concrete painters diametrically opposed to the spontaneous abstraction of the international Cobra movement (1948–1951). This is far too simplified a picture. As this essay demonstrates, the artists of Linien ii worked in a wide variety of forms, genres and media. While they made explicit references to the historical avant-garde movements that preceded them, they also anticipated the new, experimental art scenes of the 1960s, in which several of the most progressive members of Linien ii went on to participate.