Carl-Henning Pedersen
Images in clay
26 May – 20 December 2020
The renowned Cobra-artist Carl-Henning Pedersen (1913-2007) is the grand master of imaginative painting and holds a key position within the spontaneous-abstract avant-garde of the 20th century. Unknown to most people, he also expressed himself in clay.
This is the first time an exhibition focuses on his ceramic works. The whole colour scale is represented. From his monumental decorations in Herning 1966-68 to his collaboration with the Royal Copenhagen Porcelain Manufactory during the 1990s. Here, he created a long series of ceramic works in porcelain and in earthenware, as well as a series of small, spontaneous figures with his fingers in the clay.
Everything in Carl-Henning Pedersen’s universe seems to be a circular movement: as the circle of the Angli Factory and of Carl-Henning Pedersen’s own circular museum building – both in close vicinity to each other in Herning – and the jars and plates thrown by the rotation of the potter’s wheel. In the clay he has created his own cosmos seeking to depict the infinite mysteries of the universe.
The exhibition is created in close collaboration between CLAY Museum of Ceramic Art and Carl-Henning Pedersen and Else Alfelt’s Museum in Herning.
Audio work by composer Ditte Rønn Poulsen
Exhibition design by JAC Studios
A catalog has been published for the exhibition which can be purchased at the museum or by seeing more here: Clay Shop