Richard Mortensen (1910-1993) Original Work Signed And Dated 1961

Richard MORTENSEN

Original collage made by the artist signed lower right and dated 1961

Dimensions excluding frame on view 64 x 50 centimeters.

Biography:

Richard Mortensen was born in Copenhagen in 1910. After his admission to university in 1930, he entered the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen the following year. In 1932, he stopped his studies and left for Berlin where he met the members of the Bauhaus, Klee and Kandinsky. He then began his first abstract works. In 1947, he moved to Paris and participated in the group of artists of the Denise René gallery the following year. Richard Mortensen's painting combines a form of spontaneous expression with a thoughtful construction. It is also a painting of vibration, both in its forms and in its cleverly colored contrasts which demonstrate great sensitivity and a perfect mastery of the relationship between colors. At the same time, the artist gave great importance to the line, which became a means of expression that coexisted with his lively and delicate palette.

During the 1950s, the artist developed his great constructive style. For Mortensen, the line was the predominant means of expression. Using these lines, often drawn in black, Mortensen succeeded in giving extremely simple compositions an expressive and spontaneous force; the same is true of the series of silkscreen prints based on cut-out papers to which he had partly devoted himself for the past fifteen years. The artist sought, by means of pure colours and forms with precise limits, a fair balance between intellectual clarity and intuition. Richard Mortensen's work found a very significant international and favorable echo from the 1950s, first thanks to the exhibition Klar Form, organized by the Denise René gallery and presented in several major museums in Northern Europe. He then exhibited in the United States in 1953, in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo the following year and at the same time became a key artist of the Denise René gallery. His work has been presented regularly since then. Richard Mortensen died in 1993.