Carl-Henning Pedersen is a Danish painter who was born in 1913 in Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark. He grew up in a simple working-class family. Pedersen had the idea from an early age that he wanted more from his life than his parents. He wanted to study to give his life a good meaning. Initially he dreamed of becoming an architect or a composer. In 1933 he attended Den Internationale Højskole (the international folk high school) in Elsinore and became fascinated by art. There he met Else Alfelt (1910-1974) who introduced him to painting. She became Carl-Henning’s wife a year later. In 1936 they both made their debut at the Artists Autumn Exhibition in Copenhagen.
Abstract painting
Carl-Henning Pedersen developed into one of the first abstract, modern painters in his native country. He is therefore often characterized as a fairytale painter. His creations consist of fantasy creatures such as suns, ships, constellations and birds. The many blue nuances that he applies to his work, and also that Pedersen often depicts his characters floating, became his trademark. He developed a poetic, expressive style that quickly became popular with a wide audience. The figures that Pedersen painted were often the same, but he always placed them in different situations and positions on the canvas.
Involvement in coalition of artists
In the period from 1934 to 1939, Carl-Henning Pedersen was closely involved with Linien, a coalition of Danish artists. Linien organised a number of important art exhibitions during this period. A magazine was also published in which abstract art was further highlighted. Linien ceased to exist in 1939. In the meantime, there was the threat of the Second World War, in which Denmark became involved on 8 April when the Germans invaded the country and occupied it within a few days. In 1942, Pedersen joined a new artists’ collective, Høstudstillingen. During the war years, Pedersen wrote articles for the magazine Helhesten (The Horse of Hell), for which he also made illustrations. After the end of WWII, the well-known CoBrA movement was founded in 1948, which was also joined by Dutch artists; the most famous Dutch CoBrA member was Karel Appel. The movement aimed to promote free art, based on spontaneity and imagination.
Between 1940 and 1945 he contributed to the magazine Helhesten. In the same magazine Pedersen published the text ‘Arte astratta o arte immaginaria’ (Abstract art or imaginary art), which until then gave the most complete and accurate definition of the working principles of the young generation of painters, of which he was a member. This definition came close in many respects to what the programme of the Cobra group would be.
CoBrA group
Between 1945 and 1960, the Danish artists went abroad and founded the group ‘Cobra’ together with Dutch and Belgian artists. In this case, CoBrA stands for Copenhagen, Brussels and Amsterdam. The Cobra group (including Karel Appel, Corneille and Asger Jorn) was active between 1948 and 1951. During this period, Pedersen participated in the Venice Biennale. He exhibited extensively with Cobra in shows such as the first major exhibition held in 1949 at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, ‘International Experimental Art’. After that, Pedersen distanced himself from the group and began to travel regularly.
Important prizes
Pedersen’s star as a painter was rising. He exhibited his work in various places in the 1950s and won several prizes as a result. For example, he was awarded the Eckenberg medal in 1950. In 1958 he won the Guggenheim Award. The international breakthrough followed in 1962 when Pedersen represented Denmark at the Venice Biennale. A year later Carl-Henning Pedersen received the Thorvaldsen Medal.
International fame
During his career as a visual artist, Carl-Henning Pedersen was regularly invited to international exhibitions. He exhibited his work all over the world. Pedersen’s works hang in museums and galleries all over the world and when a work is offered for sale, there is great interest. Pedersen and his wife made many trips abroad where they found inspiration for new work. Pedersen always felt the need to share new work with others. He donated several works to his own museum, among others, but also to museums elsewhere in Denmark and abroad.
Big assignments
In the 1960s and 1970s, Carl-Henning Pedersen received major international commissions due to his fame. He was involved in the artistic decoration of, among others, the John F. Kennedy School in Gladsaxe in 1974, the H.C. Ørsted Institute in the period 1959-1964 and Angligården (1966-1968). In addition, he and his wife were involved in the decoration of the Carl-Henning Pedersen & Else Alfelt Museum in 1975 and later again in the renovation in 1992.
Collaboration with Else Alfelt
Else Alfelt was not only the great love of Carl-Henning Pedersen, the two also continuously inspired each other in the artistic field. They shared 40 years of joy and sorrow and shared ideas for new art that they made. When Else died in 1974, Pedersen not only lost his life partner, but also a companion in his love of art. In 1975, Pedersen met the Norwegian photographer Sidsel Ramson during a trip to Jerusalem. They started a relationship and married a few years later. Partly because of the meeting with Ramson, Carl-Henning Pedersen’s art received a new impetus. He painted more freely and even more colorfully than before. They settled in France in the countryside in Molesmes, where Pedersen felt completely at home. He described the feeling he got from his hometown as follows: “Maybe I don’t paint landscapes, but at least the sky. And to do that you must dwell beneath the sky, follow the changing light of the sky, feel the magic of being on this globe beneath the sky, and your imagination unfolds in the space of the sky – where else would “The Blue Bird” or “The Winged Horse” fly?”
Controversy
Not everyone was enthusiastic about Carl-Henning Pedersen’s very free interpretation of the biblical stories that he presented in 1983 for the cathedral of Ribe, the oldest city in Scandinavia. He had been asked by the Danish national art foundation Statens Kunstfond to make decorations for the church. He came up with designs for murals, mosaics and stained glass with sometimes quite free-spirited depictions. However, it did not detract from his international fame as an artist.
Pedersen’s works can be found in the collections of important museums all over the world: Albright-Knox Art Gallery; Göteborg Kunstmuseum,; MoMA; Nordjyllands Museum; Stedelijk Museum; the State Museum of Bucharest and many more.
Carl-Henning Pedersen died in Copenhagen on 20 February 2007, after a long illness.