Helhesten (Year 2, Booklets 2 & 3)


Helhesten (Year 2, Booklets 2 & 3)
Editor	Robert Dahlmann Olsen
Issue date	March 10, 1943
Cover design	Storm Petersen
Followed by	Helhesten (Year 2, Booklet 4)

Helhesten (Year 2, Booklets 2 & 3) is a double issue of the Danish art journal Helhesten, edited by Danish architect Robert Dahlmann Olsen. Published in March 1943, it appeared shortly after a fund-raising exhibition held to address the journal’s mounting debts.

This article is part of the Helhesten collection.

Background

This double issue appeared in March 1943, just weeks after the Helhesten artists held a fund-raising exhibition at the Pustervig Kunstnerhandel (Pustervig Art Gallery) on Kompagnistræde in Copenhagen from February 13–25, 1943. The exhibition was organized to help address the journal’s growing debt, which had been accumulating since the expensive colour printing of the first year’s issues.

As Guy Atkins notes in Jorn in Scandinavia:

In 1943 they held a fund-raising exhibition in aid of helhesten at the Pustervig Gallery in Copenhagen.

- Guy Atkins, Jorn in Scandinavia 1930-1953

The gallery was run by student Thorkild Hansen (1927–1989), who later became an important Danish writer. Although no documentation of the exhibition survives, it was likely assembled quickly as a way to raise money for the debt-ridden journal.

Cover Design

Robert Storm Petersen (1882–1949) designed the cover for this double issue. Known universally in Denmark as “Storm P,” he was one of the country’s most beloved caricaturists, illustrators, and humorists. His inclusion represented Helhesten’s embrace of popular culture and its commitment to bridging high and low art forms.

Storm Petersen’s participation in the journal was part of the Helhesten artists’ broader interest in satirical imagery, popular art forms, and the “intimate banalities” that Jorn had theorized in his landmark 1941 essay. His whimsical, accessible style aligned with the journal’s belief in art’s inherent value for everyday life.

Key Contents

“Feelings or Instincts” (Følelser eller drifter)

Sigurd Næsgaard contributed an essay exploring the relationship between emotions and instincts in artistic creation, continuing the journal’s theoretical exploration of spontaneity and the unconscious as sources of creative expression.

Wartime Context

By 1943, the German occupation had entered a more difficult phase. Danish resistance was growing, and tensions between occupiers and occupied had increased. The journal continued to serve as a space for cultural resistance through its celebration of creative freedom and humanistic values.

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, Booklet 1 (October 30, 1942) — Cover by Niels Lergaard
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