Poul Gernes: Retrospective

Only during the past decade has an audience outside Denmark startedto take notice of the great Danish artist Poul Gernes (1925-1996),which led to this ground-breaking retrospective exhibition and itscatalog. Gernes, who believed that the person behind the artwork wasirrelevant, rejected easel painting early in his life, feeling that it wasmore important to combine art with a useful function. He called himselfa “decorator,” and created more than 150 site-specific interiors andexteriors all over Denmark. Gernes founded the Experimenting ArtSchool, known as the Eks-Skolen, in 1960, and tirelessly promoted theidea of art as a socially conscious, collective enterprise. Thisbeautiful catalog also includes his 48 x 48-inch “target paintings,‘'their clear and vibrant colors typical of Gernes commitment to thesimplest and most immediate expression of art.