A tribute to “Big Robert”

Art with edge

Robert Jacobsen dominates the landscape at this spring’s international auction at Bredgade. The pieces featured are wide-ranging – from lesser known paintings and his first attempts at sculpture in wood from the 1930s, to the perfectly executed iron sculptures from the 1950s and onwards, which really made Robert Jacobsen his name.

The story of Robert Jacobsen is, above all, the story of an original artistic contribution to the European constructive avant-garde art of post-war Paris. But it is also a fantastic, personal tale of audacity, wit, talent and an iron will that made a little boy from Nyhavn into ‘Great Robert’ in Denmark and beyond.

Copenhagen – Paris

The real turning point in Robert Jacobsen’s career and artistic development was, without doubt, his decision to travel to France at the age of 34. In June 1947, he and his friend and fellow artist Richard Mortensen left Copenhagen to live at ‘La Maison des Artistes Danois’, a house fit for demolition in the Parisian suburb of Suresnes that friendly forces in the homely art scene made available to artists who, in the words of Robert Jacobsen, wanted to “blow a hole in the domestic isolation and experience a different and better atmosphere”.

Galerie Denise René

The early years in Paris were marked by extreme financial hardship, and the artist lived from hand to mouth by repairing cars and bikes, and by trading at the flea markets. However, as early as September 1947, Robert Jacobsen made contact with gallery owner Denise René and soon became an integrated part of a progressive artist community with colleagues and friends such as Victor Vasarely, Jean Dewasne, Jean Deyrolle and Serge Poliakoff. Among the slightly older generation of artists that frequented the gallery were Auguste Herbin, Jean Arp and Alberto Magnelli – artists who all worked in the opposite direction to the emotional abstract expressionism Robert Jacobsen knew from home in the form of the dawning CoBrA movement headed by Asger Jorn.

Focus on iron and space

It was during these years, the late 1940s, that the transformation occurred that would really make Robert Jacobsen’s name: the replacement of the stone he used in his sculptures with iron and a new, and enduring, focus, not only on the sculpture’s physique, but especially the empty space the sculpture takes in and defines. Robert Jacobsen’s aim was the precise description of the space with vibrant and elastic lines and forms. Looking back, the artist himself noted:

“For the new wave of constructivism, it was about making figures which were as unrealistic as humanly possible. You shouldn’t be able to find an eye, an arm or a leg in our works. And if you did, it was a near disaster. Sculptures should be purged of literature and only exist as forms and spaces. I chose to put the emphasis on the space and give it a clear definition”.

From the 1950s onwards, Robert Jacobsen’s pioneering work was exchanged for museum exhibitions, growing commercial success and large-scale decoration projects. Today, his work still enjoys high international demand, and it is a real pleasure to present such a wide selection from the majority of Robert Jacobsen’s styles and periods.

Enjoy!

Auction: Tuesday 6 March from 6 pm

View all works by Robert Jacobsen

View all modern items at the auction

Read more about the auction and download the catalogues