Helle Thorborg

Helle Thorborg (12 April 1927 – 13 November 2025) was a Danish painter and graphic designer. In her colour graphics, she used strong contrasts creating images resembling collages. She decorated a number of Danish buildings, including the pulpit in Gimsing Church near Struer, and designed scenery for the Folketeatret's experimental stage.

Early life and education Born in Gentofte on 12 April 1927, Helle Thorborg was the daughter of the parliamentary secretary Johannes Levinsen Thorborg (1896–1992) and Grete Fog (1903–1993). She was brought up in an academic environment. Despite the scepticism of her family, she was set on becoming an artist. From 1947 to 1954, she attended the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, studying painting and graphics under Aksel Jørgensen and Holger J. Jensen. In 1954, she married the architect Carl Henry Beckmann with whom she had three children, Gertrud (1956), Laurids Reidar (1957) and Marius Ingvar (1959).

Death Thorborg died on 13 November 2026, at the age of 98.

Awards Thorborg received several awards including the Tagea Brandt Rejselegat (1981), the Eckersberg Medal (1990) and the Anne Marie Telmányi prize (1994).