2015 B LO M STER TI L FO LK E T Blomster til folket – sådan ville man med tre ord kunne sammenfatte Poul Gernes’ kunstneriske gerning, og i særdeleshed hans grafiske produktion. Det ville naturligvis være at forenkle fortællingen om en af Danmarks mest mangesidige og produktive kunstnere. Men Gernes ønskede selv at forenkle det kunstneriske udtryk, at koge det ned til det, han betragtede som dets grundelementer – farve og form, og deres virkning på det enkelte individ og på samfundet som helhed. Gernes havde en vision om, at kunsten skulle berige hverdagslivet for almindelige mennesker. Kunstneren var for ham »en tjener« for samfundet, hverken mere eller mindre, hvis opgave var at udsmykke vores fælles miljøer og forskønne vores omgivelser. Den vision var han trofast overfor hele sit liv, hvilket resulterede i, at Gernes udførte mere end 150 kunstneriske udsmykninger i Danmark. Derudover havde han en stor grafisk produktion, hvoraf størstedelen blev trykt på Eks-Skolens Trykkeri. Både i udsmykningerne, der endnu er at se i mange af landets skoler, hospitaler, universiteter og plejehjem, og i de grafiske tryk består hovedmotivet ofte af enkle geometriske former eller stiliserede blomster, blade og stilke i klare farver, der slynger sig legende hen over fladerne, men som altid er underkastet en kompositorisk stringens. Udsmykningerne blev ofte udført ved hjælp af enkle papirskabeloner og mange hænders flittige arbejde, en metode der ligger tæt på de grafiske teknikker. Respekten for håndværket – håndens værk – havde Gernes fået med sig fra sit barndomshjem. Han blev født i Vanløse i 1925, hans mor var husmor, og hans far var en dygtig skomager, der lavede håndsyede sko. Gernes blev i ungdomsårene uddannet i et litografisk værksted, hvor han tilegnede sig en gedigen viden om forskellige trykketeknikker. Det fik han senere brug for på Den eksperimenterende kunstskole – Eks-Skolen – som han i 1962 startede sammen med kunsthistorikeren Troels Andersen, og som kom til at spille en meget vigtig rolle i dansk kunstliv. Gernes’ frodige grafiske billeder vidner om en sjældent konsekvent kunstnerisk vision, og er samtidig en hyldest til den grafiske kunsts særpræg, hvor harmoniske variationer over et tema – som i Bachs fugaer – er selve essensen i udtrykket. F.eks. i Gernes’ sidst udgivne mappe fra 1984, hvor det lykkedes ham at skabe 20 forskellige billeder af samme motiv, blot ved at trykke i forskellige farvestillinger både i positiv og negativ. Man kan bare åbne øjnene og lytte. I grafikken udviklede Gernes ornamentets kunstneriske muligheder. Han benyttede ofte offset-teknikken, idet den gav mulighed for med enkle midler at skabe mange variationer af et billede. Den grafiske kunst har desuden et demokratisk aspekt, hvor billeder kan produceres hurtigt og billigt og spredes vidt. Det var i overensstemmelse med Gernes’ overbevisning – at kunstens rolle er at forskønne vores offentlige rum, og at det er kunstnerens opgave at sørge for, at det bliver gjort ordentligt. For Gernes var det æstetiske altid nært forbundet med det etiske. Ornamentet er menneskets ældste kunstneriske udtryksform. I alle kulturer og religioner har ornamentet spillet en central rolle i gestaltningen af ideer, ideologier og liturgier. Streger, prikker, geometriske strukturer og grafiske mønstre har til alle tider udsmykket menneskets bygninger, billeder, redskaber, beklædningsgenstande og kroppe. I løbet af 1900-tallet var ornamentet dog periodevis under debat. I det polemiske skrift »Ornament und Verbrechen« fra 1908 argumenterede den østrigske arkitekt Adolf Loos for at ornamentet burde bandlyses fra arkitekturen, som et degenereret element der forhindrede kulturen og samfundets udvikling. En stræben efter rene former og flader blev karakteristisk for 1900-tallets arkitektoniske modernisme. Men ornamentet viste sig at være mere livskraftigt og utilregneligt end modernismens tilhængere kunne vide. Som et intelligent virus har ornamentet gang på gang muteret til nye former, og er genopstået som et centralt element i både kunst og arkitektur. I en tekst fra 1948 med titlen: »Hvad er et Ornament« skriver Asger Jorn: »Alt, hvad der lever, bevæger sig, og alt, hvad der bevæger sig former sine arabesker i tid og rum. Disse arabesker lever og hviler i sig selv, og griber samtidig ind i andre arabesker, der igen er dele af endnu større bevægelser, der igen indgaar i alt det vi kalder stoffet eller materien, og hvorom vi kun ved, at det er et utal af bevægelser af arabesker lige fra atomets og molekylernes sindrige systemer til klodernes bevægelser i rummet omkring solsystemernes usynlige kærner.« Gernes’ og Jorns kunstneriske tilgange var på mange måder forskellige, men de delte opfattelsen af, at ornamentet havde en central rolle i kulturhistorien og menneskets hverdagsliv. Poul Gernes’ kunstneriske gerning fra 1960’erne frem til sin død i 1996 er en hyldest til ornamentet som et livsbekræftende humanistisk udtryk. Det blev praktiseret som realpolitisk kunstnerisk handling i de mange offentlige udsmykninger, hvor facader og interiører generøst blev dekoreret med ornamenter i klare farver og enkle former. Dette karakteristiske formsprog kendetegner også Gernes’ omfattende grafiske produktion, hvoraf et lille udvalg er gengivet i denne kalender, der udgives i anledning af at Poul Gernes i år ville være fyldt 90 år. Anders Krüger billedkunstner, professor FLOWERS FO R TH E PEO PLE Flowers for the people – that’s how, with four little words, you could epitomize Poul Gernes’ artistic acheivement and particularly his graphic output. Naturally, this would be simplifying the story of one of Denmark’s most versatile and prolific artists. However, Gernes himself actually was yearning to simplify the artistic expression, to boil it down to what he regarded as its fundamental elements – color and form, and their effect on the individual and on society as a whole. Gernes had a vision that art ought to enrich the everyday lives of ordinary people. To him, the artist was »a servant« of society, no more and no less, whose job it was to decorate our shared environments and to beautify our surroundings. Over the course of his whole life, he was faithful to this vision; this resulted in Gernes’ executing more than 150 artistic in situ decorations in Denmark. Above and beyond this, he also generated a large output of graphic works, most of which were printed at Eks-Skolens Trykkeri. Both in his in situ decorations – which can still be seen inside many of the nation’s schools, hospitals, universities and nursing homes – and in his graphic prints, the central motive often consists of simple geometric forms or stylized flowers, leaves and stems in bright colors, which meander playfully across the surfaces but are always subject to a compositional rigor. The decorations were often executed with the aid of simple paper stencils and many hands’ diligent work, using a method that is closely akin to the graphic techniques. Respect for the handcraft – for the hand’s work – was something that Gernes had ingrained inside him from the days of his childhood. He was born in Vanløse in 1925. His mother was a housewife and his father a skilled shoemaker who made handsewn shoes. In his youth, Gernes was educated at a lithography workshop, where he acquired a thorough knowledge of different kinds of printing techniques. Later on, he made use of these skills at the experimental art-school, Den eksperimenterende kunstskole – Eks-Skolen, which he founded in 1962 along with art historian Troels Andersen and which came to play a crucial and central role in Danish art life. Gernes’ sumptuous graphic images testify to an uncommonly consistent artistic vision and simultaneously stand as a tribute to the salient character of graphic art, where harmonic variations on a theme – as in Bach’s fugues – constitute the very essence of the expression. A sterling example of this can be seen in the last of Gernes’ portfolios of graphic works, dating from 1984, where the artist managed to create 20 different images of the same motif simply by making the prints in various color schemes, both in positive and negative. You can just open your eyes and listen. In his graphic works, Gernes managed to advance the artistic possibilities of the ornament. He frequently made use of the offset-technique because it offered the possi- bility of using simple means to create many variations of an image. Graphic art, moreover, has a patently democratic aspect, where images can be produced quickly and cheaply and can be dispersed far and wide. This jibed neatly with Gernes’ firm conviction – that art’s role is to beautify our public spaces and that it is the artist’s task to make sure that this is done properly. For Gernes, the aesthetic was always inextricably conjoined with the ethical. The ornament is mankind’s oldest artistic form of expression. In all cultures and religions, the ornament has played a central role in the visualization of ideas, ideologies and liturgies. Lines, dots, geometric structures and graphic patterns have, throughout history, adorned people’s buildings, pictures, implements, clothing and bodies. During the twentieth century, however, the ornament was periodically the object of discussion and debate. In his polemical essay, »Ornament und Verbrechen«, from 1908, the Austrian architect Adolf Loos argued that the ornament should be banned from architecture, as a degenerate element that hindered the evolution of the culture and society. A quest for pure forms and surfaces came to be characteristic of the 1900s’ architectonic modernism. However, the ornament eventually proved to be more vigorous and »beyond control« than modernism’s followers could have foreseen. Like some kind of intelligent virus, the ornament has repeatedly mutated into new forms and has reemerged as a central element in both art and architecture. In a text penned in 1948 entitled, »What is an Ornament,« Asger Jorn comments on life’s intrinsic patterns and arabesques: »Everything that lives is in constant movement and everything that moves forms its arabesques in time and space. These arabesques live and repose in themselves but at the same time they interact with other arabesques, which again are elements of even larger movements, which in turn engage with all that we describe as substances or matter, and of which we only know that there are myriad arabesque movements – right from the ingenious systems holding atoms and molecules together up to the movement of the planets in space – all circling the solar system’s invisible core.« Gernes’ and Jorn’s artistic approaches were different in so many ways but they nonetheless shared the perception that the ornament had a central role in the cultural history and in people’s everyday lives. Poul Gernes’ artistic achievement from the 1960s until his death in 1996 stands as a tribute to the ornament as a life-affirming humanistic expression. It was practiced as realpolitik-artistic action in his many public in situ decorations, where facades and interiors were generously decorated with ornaments in bright colors and simple forms. This characteristic idiom is also a salient feature of Gernes’ extensive graphic output, a small selection of which has been reproduced for this calendar, which is being published in commemoration of the fact that Poul Gernes, in this year, would have turned 90 years of age. Anders Krüger artist, professor JAN UAR / JAN UARY 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 1 6 1 7 1 8 1 9 2 0 2 1 2 2 2 3 24 2 5 2 6 27 2 8 2 9 30 31 FEBRUAR / FEBRUARY 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 1 4 1 5 1 6 1 7 1 8 1 9 2 0 2 1 2 2 2 3 24 2 5 2 6 27 2 8 MARTS / MARCH 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 1 6 1 7 1 8 1 9 2 0 2 1 2 2 2 3 24 2 5 2 6 27 2 8 2 9 30 31 APRIL / APRIL 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 1 5 1 6 1 7 1 8 1 9 2 0 2 1 2 2 2 3 24 2 5 2 6 27 2 8 2 9 30 M A J / M AY 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 1 6 1 7 1 8 1 9 2 0 2 1 2 2 2 3 24 2 5 2 6 27 2 8 2 9 30 3 1 JUNI / JUNE 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 1 5 1 6 1 7 1 8 1 9 2 0 2 1 2 2 2 3 24 2 5 2 6 27 2 8 2 9 30 J U L I / J U LY 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 1 6 1 7 1 8 1 9 2 0 2 1 2 2 2 3 24 2 5 2 6 27 2 8 2 9 30 31 AUGUST / AUGUST 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 1 6 1 7 1 8 1 9 2 0 2 1 2 2 2 3 24 2 5 2 6 27 2 8 2 9 3 0 31 SEPTEMBER / SEPTEMBER 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 1 5 1 6 1 7 1 8 1 9 2 0 2 1 2 2 2 3 24 2 5 2 6 27 2 8 2 9 30 O K TO B ER / O C TO B ER 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 1 6 1 7 1 8 1 9 2 0 2 1 2 2 2 3 24 2 5 2 6 27 2 8 2 9 30 31 N OVEM B ER / N OVEM B ER 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 1 5 1 6 1 7 1 8 1 9 2 0 2 1 2 2 2 3 24 2 5 2 6 27 2 8 2 9 30 DECEMBER / DECEMBER 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 1 6 1 7 1 8 1 9 2 0 2 1 2 2 2 3 24 2 5 2 6 27 2 8 2 9 30 31 © The Estate of Poul Gernes, 2015 Grafisk produktion / Graphic production: Eks-Skolens Trykkeri ApS Tekst / Text: © Anders Krüger Engelsk oversættelse / English translation: Dan A. Marmorstein Tak til / Thanks to: Aase Seidler Gernes & Klara Karolines Fond ISBN: 978-87-997740-0-5