Richard Mortensen – Between Lines

A true modernist icon, and one of the driving forces of Surrealism in Denmark, Richard Mortensen (1910–1993) is exhibited in a landmark retrospective focusing on the artist’s impressive contributions within, but especially outside of Denmark.

Form, surface, space, colour, point, and line. Every detail is carefully considered – or deliberately unleashed – in Mortensen’s strict yet playful idiom. Between Lines is the first major retrospective in 30 years and includes more than 80 paintings and works on paper from across Mortensen’s momentous 60-year career.

Richard Mortensen pioneered a new approach to abstraction motivated by his deep belief in the power of art and its potential for social change. First through Surrealist experiments in the 1930s and later as a leading figure of concrete art, showing with Galerie Denise René in Paris in the 1950s.

Historical, literary, geographical, and political references constantly appear in the titles of Mortensen’s works and typify his desire to shed light on political issues of the time. His work to develop a purely abstract visual language was followed through to monumental scale in the 1970s.

Against the backdrop of global political turbulence of the 1960s onwards, Mortensen worked towards an ever-increasing simplification of form. He sought inspiration in Zen Buddhism and Taoism with its sense of purity and the interdependence of complementary forces, right up until his death in 1993.

Aage og Johanne Louis-Hansens Fond

Dronning Margrethe og Prins Henriks Fond

Hoffmann og Husmans Fond

Frimodt-Heineke Fonden

Arne V. Schleschs Fond

Cover image creditline:

Installation photos: Mads Smidstrup, @ARoS Aarhus Art Museum, 2024