Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art

About this Work

Inspired by the works of the German Expressionists, which the Nazi regime denounced as “degenerate,” Pedersen began painting in an expressionistic style during World War II. While Denmark was under German occupation, he also contributed to the subversive journal Helhesten, which published articles on officially unacceptable art forms, including modernism and non-western art. From 1948 to 1951 he was a member of the avant-garde CoBrA group, comprised of artists from Copenhagen, Brussels, and Amsterdam. Although the group called for a new art relevant to postwar Europe, they in fact followed in the footsteps of their avant-garde predecessors in the early twentieth century, cultivating styles inspired by expressionism, folk art, and children’s art.