DÉTOURNÉD PAINTING

Intended for the public. Easy reading

Collectors and museums,
be modern
If you have old paintings,
do not despair.
Keep your memories
But detourne them
So they correspond to your time
Why reject the old [paintings]
If one can modernize them?
With a few brushstrokes
Modernize your old culture
Be up to date
and distinguished at the same time
Painting is over
Better give it the final blow
Detourne
Long live painting

Asger Jorn, exhibition catalogue, Galerie Rive Gauche, Paris, May 1959. Translation: Young Kim.

Among the pertinent exhibits of our forthcoming show Eyes For Blowing Up Bridges is the statement disavowing traditional approaches to artistic creation made by the Danish artist and writer Asger Jorn in the late 50s.

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Tags: Alexander Trocchi, Asger Jorn, Fin de Copenhague, Gallery International, Guy Brett, Internationale Lettriste, John McCready Archive, Let It Rock, Mémoires, New Musical Express, Parade, Peel + Lift, Ten Gauge City, Vivienne Westwood, William Burroughs, Worlds End

I first met artist/curator Robert Gordon McHarg III two decades ago, when he was developing a sadly unrealised television project based around the annual Christmas extravaganza conducted by our mutual friend, Robert Lopez, aka El Vez The Mexican Elvis.

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Tags: Alessandra Travagliati, Asgar Jorn, El Vez, Guy Debord, Joe Strummer, Maria McKee, Mémoires, Mescaleros, Robert Gordon McHarg III, Robert Lopez, Sandpaper Blues, Subway Gallery, The Return Of The Durutti Column, Vini Reilly, Wayne Kramer, Wilko Johnson