Literature: Guy Atkins: “Asger Jorn. The Crucial Years 1954–1964”, no. 1055, ill. p. 327. Exhibited: The Salomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1967–1968. Provenance: Helmut F. Stern, Detroit, USA, Provenance: Private collection, Denmark. Acquired from the above in 1988.

1957 was, in several respects, a decisive year for Asger Jorn. He established important commercial connections to the German businessman Otto van de Loo and his gallery in Munich which would later play a crucial role in the international propagation of his art. 1957 was also the year of Jorn's first major separate exhibition in Galerie Rive Gauche in Paris. The famous and highly popular French poet Jacques Prévert wrote the introductionfor the exhibition catalogue which in itself helped create a name for Jorn who had been relatively obscure until then. Another side-benefit of this exhibition was that it gave Jorn entrance to England. Several of the paintings included in the exhibitionwere sold to English collectors. The composition offered for sale here is also from 1957, and it resembles his best and most characteristic works from this period in that it is populated with mythological creatures and supernatural beings from the world of legends and dreams beyond time and place. In the words of Guy Atkins, these paintings glow like bird's feathers and butterfly wings.