Helhesten (Year 2, Booklet 1)


Helhesten (Year 2, Booklet 1)
Editor	Robert Dahlmann Olsen
Issue date	October 30, 1942
Cover design	Niels Lergaard
Followed by	Helhesten (Year 2, Booklets 2 & 3)

Helhesten (Year 2, Booklet 1) is the first issue of the second year of the Danish art journal Helhesten, edited by Danish architect Robert Dahlmann Olsen. Published nearly a year after the previous issue, it marked the journal’s survival despite growing financial difficulties during the German occupation.

This article is part of the Helhesten collection.

Background

After producing six issues in 1941, Helhesten fell silent for nearly a year before this issue appeared in October 1942. The eleven-month gap reflected the journal’s growing financial difficulties—the colour printing that had distinguished the publication proved unsustainable under wartime conditions. This would be the only issue published in 1942.

Despite these challenges, the journal continued to serve as a vital forum for Denmark’s avant-garde during the occupation. As Guy Atkins notes in Jorn in Scandinavia:

It is now generally recognized that the artists of the war years were by far the most talented generation of painters and sculptors that Denmark has ever produced. The war situation drew these men closer together. They could no longer travel abroad and so they had to rely entirely upon each other for mental stimulus and companionship.

- Guy Atkins, Jorn in Scandinavia 1930-1953

Cover Design

Niels Lergaard (1893–1982) designed the cover for this issue. Lergaard was a Danish painter associated with the Bornholm school and known for his landscape paintings of the Danish island. He had previously contributed the important essay “The Myth” (Myten) to Helhesten’s third issue, in which he distinguished between “myth-believing” and “myth-creating” approaches to life and art.

Lergaard’s inclusion as a cover artist demonstrated the journal’s continued embrace of artists across the Danish modernist spectrum—he was an established figure from an older generation whose work connected to both expressionism and the Scandinavian landscape painting tradition.

Exhibition Context

In 1942, the Helhesten artists were also active in the Corner and Høst exhibition groups. Jorn exhibited with “Corner og Høst” in 1942, and several Helhesten artists would become core members of the Høst group, which became increasingly important as a venue for Danish avant-garde art.

Year Two Begins

This issue inaugurated the second year (2. Aargang) of the journal. The issue advertised the bound hardcover edition of Year 1, featuring a cover design by Carl-Henning Pedersen, available from the publisher Axelholm for 3 Danish kroner.

The Helhesten Series

Helhesten was published over nine issues from April 1941 to November 1944. The journal was illustrated with over fifty original, mostly colour graphic works, and printed in editions of 800. It was affordable to the general public; a full set of all issues cost twelve kroner, or the equivalent of $2.30 in 1944.

Other issues in the series include:

Helhesten Year 1, Booklet 1 (April 13, 1941) — Cover by Henry Heerup
Helhesten Year 1, Booklet 2 (May 10, 1941) — Cover by Egon Mathiesen
Helhesten Year 1, Booklet 3 (September 17, 1941) — Cover by Jens Søndergaard
Helhesten Year 1, Booklet 4 (October 18, 1941) — Cover by Hans Scherfig
Helhesten Year 1, Booklets 5 & 6 (November 18, 1941) — Cover by Axel Salto
Helhesten Year 2, Booklets 2 & 3 (March 10, 1943) — Cover by Storm Petersen
Helhesten Year 2, Booklet 4 (December 24, 1943) — Cover by Ejler Bille
Helhesten Year 2, Booklets 5 & 6 (November 11, 1944) — Cover by Carl-Henning Pedersen

Explore the Book

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Creators

Asger Jorn