January 24th 5-8 pm at Normann Copenhagen, Østerbrogade 70 in Copenhagen.
For over six decades, Jørgen Haugen Sørensen has enriched museums, public spaces and private collectors with his expressive sculptures and he is still highly active on the art scene today. A master of crafts, the Danish sculptor alternates between the naturalistic and a freer abstract expression, working with clay, bronze, granite, marble and other materials. He has a profound interest in literature and politics, and is known to speak his mind liberally to Danish art institutions and authorities, advocating on behalf of the free expression of art.
Haugen Sørensen was born in 1934 in Copenhagen, Denmark. He is primarily an autodidact, having trained as a ceramist from age 15, but then going on to advance his skills on his own. At the age of 19, he exhibited three sculptures at the Charlottenborg Exhibition Hall in Copenhagen, marking the beginning of his long career, across which he has worked in Paris, Verona and Tuscany, among other places. His latest solo exhibitions include ‘The Innocent Guilty’ at the Hans Alf Gallery in Copenhagen, Denmark in 2018 and ’The Crowd’ at Pietrasanta in Italy in 2017.
JØRGEN HAUGEN SØRENSEN - PLATTER
A sheep’s head rests on a platter, eyes narrowed, its tongue hanging limply over the edge. Jørgen Haugen Sørensen’s affinity for animal motifs has shaped his contribution to the Normann x Brask Art Collection – an imposing ceramic platter appearing with both violence and sentiment.
As a young man, Haugen Sørensen worked for a time at a slaughterhouse, and it was his impressions from this place which later inspired his series ‘We Eat, They Feed’ from 2006 (Galleri Nørby, Copenhagen), consisting of ceramic platters that feature animal motifs. It is in this series that we first encounter the sheep, which now reappears in his piece for the Normann x Brask Art Collection.
Referencing the ancient Incas, who decorated their ceramics with animal figurines, Haugen Sørensen sets out to bring a bit of artistic verve back to our streamlined tableware. His platter combines use and aesthetics, uniting the dead animals we serve with the ornament of a slaughtered sheep. With this correlating still life of meat on meat, Haugen Sørensen draws our attention to the reality of what we eat. Significant in size and lifelike in its depiction of the animal, the platter attains a renaissance-like feel, while the choice of a white and slightly transparent glazing lends a poetic quality to the piece.
