Literature: Jan Würtz Frandsen: “Richard Mortensen: Ungdomsårene 1930–1940. Mellem surrealisme og abstraktion”, Copenhagen 1984, fig. 253, ill. p. 222. Exhibited: “Sider af abstrakt kunst i Danmark”, Nikolaj Kunstbygning, Copenhagen 1981–82, cat. no. 77. Provenance: The collection of Architect Robert Dahlmann Olsen, Dragør, Denmark Provenance: Private collection, Denmark.

Together with his friends and colleagues - Ejler Bille, Sonja Ferlov Mancoba, et al. - involved with the art group and journal 'Linien', Richard Mortensen was instrumental in the breakthrough of abstract art in Denmark, and this painting up for auction is an example of his earliest pioneering efforts from the mid-1930s rarely found at auction. 'Linien' was home to the study of the ideas and art of international Surrealism, and Richard Mortensen particularly concerned himself with 'automatic drawings', in an attempt to let the subconscious determine the motif rather than conscious thought. The motif sphere is often - as in this work - flora and birds, which undergo ornamental syntheses and metamorphoses. 

“Skiftende overgange” (Changing transitions) has significant similarities, motif and technique-wise, to the paintings in the series from the same year, “Brev til en ung pige (I-VI)” (Letter to a young girl (I-VI)), which Mortensen painted in the spring and summer of 1936 in Rørvig, where he was staying with Sonja Ferlov, Hans Øllgaard and Ejler Bille. Among other things, Jan Würtz Frandsen writes: “(...) he once again makes use of the automatic arabesque which covers the surface, also in a series of paintings from July and August, in which larger, yet still intricate and ambiguous figures stand out above a scenic, overgrown, rocky landscape (...)”. (Würtz p. 208)