The Drawing Macbeth Asger Jorn, 1942 Pen, Indian ink, pencil, 230 x 306 mm
The drawing Macbeth is characteristic in so far as myriads of figures spread across the whole picture plane. The drawing was probably intended as a sketch for a painting and was executed during a stay on the North Sea coast at Nr. Lyngby during the summer of 1942 where Asger Jorn had rented a small fisherman’s cottage together with his artist colleague Ejler Bille.
With an ideal continuity the motif expresses spontaneity, playfulness, experiment, all of which are significant themes in the works of Asger Jorn.
“Art and handwriting are the same. An image is written and handwriting is images. There is handwriting, a graphic element, in every image just as there is an image in every piece of handwriting. The border between art and handwriting is blurred in origin. Everything is a symbol of something.”
—Quote by Asger Jorn · “The Prophetic Harps”, 1944
