Helhesten (Year 2, Booklets 5 & 6)


Helhesten (Year 2, Booklets 5 & 6)
Editor	Robert Dahlmann Olsen
Issue date	November 11, 1944
Cover design	Carl-Henning Pedersen

Helhesten (Year 2, Booklets 5 & 6) is the final issue of the Danish art journal Helhesten, edited by Danish architect Robert Dahlmann Olsen. Published in November 1944, it concluded the journal’s remarkable three-and-a-half-year run during the German occupation of Denmark.

This article is part of the Helhesten collection.

Background

The final double issue of Helhesten appeared in November 1944, less than six months before Denmark’s liberation on May 5, 1945. The journal ended not because of German censorship but due to accumulated financial debt from its ambitious colour printing during wartime conditions.

As Kerry Greaves notes:

It was Helhesten’s growing financial debt, in fact, and not censorship by the Germans, that led to its closure in 1944. The financial problems led to uneven publication, so that while six issues came out in 1941, just one issue was produced in 1942, three in 1943, and two in 1944.

- Kerry Greaves, “Hell-Horse: Radical Art and Resistance in Nazi-Occupied Denmark”

Cover Design

Carl-Henning Pedersen (1913–2007) designed the cover for this final issue, bringing the series full circle—he had also designed the cover for the bound Year 1 collection. Pedersen was one of the core Helhesten artists, known for his fantastical imagery populated by birds, suns, and mythological creatures rendered in bright, spontaneous colours. His work exemplified the “fantasy art” approach he had theorized in earlier issues.

Key Contents

“The Prophetic Harps” (De profetiske harper) by Asger Jorn

Jorn contributed a substantial theoretical essay exploring the relationship between visual art and writing, continuing the journal’s investigation of symbolic expression:

Visual art and writing are the same. A picture is written, and writing is pictures. Just as the fullness of a violin’s tone depends on the multitude of overtones that lie behind the actual tone we hear, so the whole range of unconscious associations we have with a sign is the cause of its power.

- Asger Jorn, “The Prophetic Harps,” Helhesten 2, nos. 5-6 (1944)

“Medieval Wall Paintings” (Middelalderens kalkmalerier) by Carl-Henning Pedersen

Pedersen contributed an essay on Danish medieval church frescoes, connecting the journal’s interest in contemporary fantasy art to historical precedents in Nordic folk tradition. This continued Helhesten’s sustained engagement with prehistoric and medieval Scandinavian visual culture as sources of inspiration for modern art.

“All Art Should Be Popular” (Al kunst bør være folkelig) by Henry Heerup

Heerup’s essay articulated the journal’s populist ethos, arguing that art should be accessible and meaningful to ordinary people—a position that aligned with the Danish tradition of folkelighed (popular belonging) while challenging both academic elitism and Nazi cultural propaganda.

“Folk Poetry” (Almuepoesi) by Jens Sigsgaard

Sigsgaard contributed an essay on vernacular poetry, extending the journal’s investigation of popular culture and folk traditions as vital sources for contemporary artistic practice.

Children’s Drawings

Some of the print inserts in Helhesten were drawings made by children, as seen in this print from Helhesten year 2, booklets 5-6. The Helhesten artists believed in the ability of children's drawings to convey an uninhibited and uninfluenced sense of realism.

The final issue included children’s drawings as print inserts, demonstrating the group’s continued commitment to celebrating uninhibited creativity as a model for authentic artistic expression.

Legacy

Though Helhesten ended in 1944, its influence extended far beyond the war years. Many of its core artists—including Jorn, Pedersen, Bille, and Jacobsen—became founding members of the international Cobra movement (1948–1951), which carried forward Helhesten’s emphasis on spontaneity, fantasy, and the integration of art with everyday life. The journal’s editor, Robert Dahlmann Olsen, edited the first issue of Cobra in a format virtually identical to Helhesten.

As Guy Atkins writes:

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.

- Guy Atkins, Jorn in Scandinavia 1930-1953

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. Year 2 was available in a bound hardcover edition with a cover design by Asger Jorn.

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, Booklets 2 & 3 (March 10, 1943) — Cover by Storm Petersen
Helhesten Year 2, Booklet 4 (December 24, 1943) — Cover by Ejler Bille

Creators

Asger Jorn