Jørgen Haugen Sørensen

Jørgen Haugen Sørensen (; 3 October 1934 – 18 November 2021) was one of Denmark's most eminent sculptors. He had his artistic debut at the acclaimed and prestigious Spring Exhibition (Forårsudstillingen) at Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen in 1953. Haugen Sørensen was a member of the artistic union Decembristerne and the artist collective Grønningen, as well as Veksølund in Denmark.

The post-war and contemporary sculptor has been hailed as the greatest Danish sculptor since Bertel Thorvaldsen. Sørensen's sculptures have been placed all around the world.

Jørgen Haugen Sørensen has spent most of his life abroad, living in a voluntary exile in Southern Europe. The 1960s he spent in Paris, France and Verona, Italy before finally settling down in the artists' town Pietrasanta in Tuscany from 1971. Despite developing a style far removed from his Danish contemporaries, Haugen Sørensen has always been highly present in his native country in exhibitions as well as in the artistic debate.

At the end of the 1950s during a stay on the island of Bornholm, he entered a more abstract phase, experimenting with tiled pipes and other ceramic products, although he maintained elements of the body and other recognizable phenomena. During the dramatic years of the Algerian War, he settled in Paris creating figurative sculptures in bronze from 1959 to 1963. They depict scarred, torn organic forms reflecting a reality of cruelty, fear and sexuality. He traveled widely to Italy, Germany, Spain and Yugoslavia, developing a style which was far removed from Danish culture.

Throughout his career Haugen Sørensen had been rethinking how to work with sculpture, and according to him art is important precisely because it is the means through which society breathes. His oeuvre can thus largely be viewed as a commentary on basic conditions of human existence.

Jørgen Haugen Sørensen's inspiration stemmed from myriad places. From Francis Goya's depictions of the Spanish peoples suffering during the Franco rule to Pablo Picasso's anti-war oil painting Guernica from 1937 and his own memories of childhood visits in the slaughterhouses in the Copenhagen Meat Packing District and readings of Kurt Vonnegut's novel Slaughterhouse Five from 1969. Haugen Sørensen studied Gian Lorenzo Bernini's craftsmanship and marble sculptures, the Mediterranean crafts traditions and he also took away ideas from his meeting with the abstract expressionist art movement in Paris and CoBrA in the 1950s.

Selected solo exhibitions

A selection of Haugen Sørensen's exhibitions includes:

Awards and recognitions

Represented Denmark at La Biennale di Venezia in 1958 The Eckersberg Medal in 1969 The Thorvaldsen Medal in 1979 Statens Kunstfonds livsvarige hædersydelse in 1984.

Art market and fairs Haugen Sørensen is represented by Copenhagen-based Hans Alf Gallery as well as by UK based Messums London and Wiltshire. He has exhibited his work at international art fairs such as Art Herning, Scope Basel and Scope New York.