Bamse Kragh Jacobsen

Hans Bernhardt (Bamse) Kragh-Jacobsen was a pioneering Danish artist. He studied already as a 20-year-old, from 1933 at the Reimann-Schule in Belin, an avant-garde art school related to the Bauhaus.

In Berlin he received his early impressions of contemporary art. After completing his studies, he returned to Copenhagen during World War II. Bamse Kragh-Jacobsen debuted at the Artists' Autumn Exhibition (Kunstnernes Efterårsudstilling) in Copenhagen in 1945.

Two years later, in 1947, Bamse Kragh-Jacobsen together with the Danish artists Ib Geertsen, Niels Macholm, Albert Mertz and Richard Winther, founded the artist collective Linien II. Linien (the predecessor of Linien II) was founded in Denmark in the late 1930s and focused on abstraction and symbolism. After the Second World War, Linien II became a center of gravity in Danish contemporary art.

The first exhibition for Linen II - which also featured performances and concerts alongside paintings and sculptures - was held at Tokantens Galerie in Copenhagen in the summer of 1948. At this exhibition, Bamse Kragh-Jacobsen showed, among other works, the painting Hommage à Piet Mondrian, which today is part of the collections at the Esbjerg Art Museum.

Bamse Kragh-Jacobsen's many notable solo exhibitions include several exhibitions at Galleri Tokanten, Copenhagen (1945, 1967, 1972, 1979 and 1992), Atelier 53 in Copenhagen (1982 and 1986), Galleri Riis og Givskov in Horsens (1983), Gallery Unique Art in Stribgaarden (1984) and Bispegården's Kunstudstilling in Kalundborg (1984).

Kragh-Jacobsen became a unifying force and exhibited extensively throughout his career, alongside his contemporary Danish colleagues. With the collective Linien II (1947-1951), Bamse Kragh-Jacobsen carried out significant group exhibitions, which echoed within Danish contemporary art. These exhibitions include: Forårsudstilling (Spring exhibition) at Konsthallen Charlottenborg, Copenhagen (1969); The Grønningen Artists Association in Copenhagen (1970-71) and Brandt's Art Museum in Odense (1988).