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Jørgen Haugen Sørensen, born in Copenhagen in 1934, is one of Denmark’s most esteemed and decorated sculptors. Since the age of nineteen, he has lived and worked in various European metropoles such as Paris, Verona, and Barcelona. In 1971 he moved to Pietrasanta in Tuscany, Italy, which has served as his primary residence ever since. Throughout his entire artistic career he has consistently and independently focused his attention on the human condition in society.
Since his debut in 1953 he has without any formal training or schooling shifted effortlessly between materials and modes of expression within the sculptural sphere, and mastered each transformation with continuous success. In a continuous line towards abstraction, Haugen Sørensen engaged with the Portuguese granite for more than twenty five years, and created some of his most significant and monumental public sculptures for cities and landscapes throughout Europe and the US, before he, in the late ’90s, returned to a more direct sculpturing in clay, and in recent years towards expressive bronze sculpture that has been modelled up in clay.
Jørgen Haugen Sørensen
Wednesday 19 August, 11am
Jørgen is one of Denmark’s most esteemed and celebrated sculptors. Listen to him discuss his fascinating life and work with Johnny Messum ahead of his show at Messums London this Autumn.
30 September – 24 October
Jørgen Haugen Sørensen, born in Copenhagen in 1934, is one of Denmark’s most esteemed and decorated sculptors and we are delighted to represent his work in the UK. Throughout
his entire artistic career he has consistently and independently focused his attention on the human condition in society and has shifted effortlessly between materials and modes
of expression within the sculptural sphere – each transformation has been mastered with continuous success.
Whilst Jørgen works in materials including bronze and marble, this exhibition – his debut at Messums London – will focus on his white clay works, one of the most basic of materials
that has always been in line with his aesthetic approach.
According to legend, God modelled human figures out of clay. He breathed life into them, let them live and will determine if they deserve to burn in hell or not.
In front of Jørgen’s work, we lose our sense of position and we experience uncertainness for
a moment as we determine if we are looking
at sculptures or if we are looking at ourselves. With the positions he chooses, the situation
of the human and the clay, Jørgen unveils the relationship between the human and his own filth. When we look at his figures, we don’t know what to see: the humanity of the clay or the muddiness of humanity. Is he presenting to us a humanity we don’t know or what we don’t want to know about our humanity?
Armen Agop
Three portrait films by Malene Ravn, April 2019.
Jørgen filmed during the summer 2018. The Arrival, work in progress, was later cast in bronze. Filmed for an exhibition at the JH Willumsen museum by Elena Mehlman.