1968-12-17

Kastelsvej 28,

D – 2100 Copenhagen Ø.

Danemark.

København d. 17.12.68

Kære Sonja, Ernest og Wonga,

Jeg har så mange gange i de forløbne måneder tænkt på at skrive til jer, og nu bliver det endelig til noget fordi jeg lige har læst Ernests artikel i ”Billedkunst”.

Det glædede mig meget at se de smukke gengivelser af malerier og skulpturer, det taler alt sammen til mig ved sin fine og ægte klang.

En ekstra glæde er teksten om den moderne kunst og samfundet – ikke mindst på baggrund af det meste af heftets øvrige indhold.

The problems you touch in your essay, dear Ernest, are related to some thoughts that I recently expressed in a lecture to some students of art-history, on art and society.

Some people believe that art could be and should be integrated in the modern technological society –

Other people think that by spreading modern art to the masses, you can change the masses and make them aspire to non-materialistic demands.

In my opinion both beliefs are false. I think that art is the result of a creative process, rooted in man’s most vital spiritual demands. So the only relevant question is to me: how are the relations between creative work, the creative process – and modern technological culture? And I think that this is another way to say what you say in your essay: that you have to choose between spiritual integrity [and] or a systematic search for the material conditions of life.

Danish society today [sy] supports art – and this is good. One should use this support in the best possible way, with the utmost sense of responsibility. But one should always be conscient that, for society, art is just a nice flower in the buttonhole and nothing more.

Another question is the “materialism” of modern society. One might say that what is wrong is not that society is materialistic – but: that it is materialistic in a corrupted, perverted way. When the real demands of man could be fulfilled in a rational way, what does capitalistic (and also some communist) societies do? – they create and fulfil more or less perverted, egoistic demands.

Anyway, I have been very, very glad to read your essay. We need to hear these things, to think them over and win more conscience. And, what is important, you must know that you are not alone. Here and there, often just working in silence, passionately absorbed, people exist who think along the same lines as you. – Finally: do we not see you, all of you, in Copenhagen some day? We should be very happy to have you with us, – friends should meet, just now and then, and you have not seen our daughter!!

Mange hilsner til jer alle fra os 4 – Poul