Untitled

A long and active life has made Ib Geertsen an institution in Danish art. He is one of those who have always attempted, by use of color, to win not just the plane but the entire room. Working from a belief that color makes and esthetical and mental difference for modern man, he has colored schools and hospitals, furniture, interactive sculptures, works in enamel and much else besides, which might stretch artistic effects into daily life. ‘Color environments’ and the social works of ornamentation have been the special occupation that unites all the others.

Text by Peter Michael Hornung
Translated by Lotte Follin

Ib Geertsen (1919 – 2009) has exhibited at ARoS – Aarhus Museum of Art, Aarhus; Galleri Tom Christoffersen, Copenhagen; Maison du Danemark, Paris; Art Centre Silkeborg Bad, Silkeborg; Nikolaj, Copenhagen Contemporary Art Center, Copenhagen; Blaafarveværket, Åmot; Esbjerg Art Museum, Esbjerg; Randers Museum of Art, Randers; Art museum of Vestsjaelland, Sorø; The National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen, among others. In 1947 he was one of the founders of the artist group Linien II. Geertsen’s work is represented in several museums among others The National Gallery of Denmark og ARoS – Aarhus Museum of Art and he has done lots of commissions and public art. Ib Geertsen has received the Royal Danish Academy’ finest honours Thorvaldsen Medaillen (1991) and Eckersberg Medaillen (1978).