Over kunstenaar Jacob Herskind

Jacob Herskind is a Danish artist who provokes us into questioning traditional views on what art really is. His works have a unique language in which visual form and play on words are combined in a humorous sense of controlled madness.

His paintings are a kind of positive symbolic pop-art, calling to mind both Warhol and Basquiat, and, perhaps, Haring. Even so, each work has that characteristic uniqueness of expression it has to be Herskind.

As Jacob Herskind puts it: I paint happy pictures, I paint decorative pictures; but beneath the surface there has to be a layer of mysticism, of philosophy, of a hey wait a minuteness. When you hurry past a painting and pay it unconscious attention ou...

Jacob Herskind is a Danish artist who provokes us into questioning traditional views on what art really is. His works have a unique language in which visual form and play on words are combined in a humorous sense of controlled madness.

His paintings are a kind of positive symbolic pop-art, calling to mind both Warhol and Basquiat, and, perhaps, Haring. Even so, each work has that characteristic uniqueness of expression it has to be Herskind.

As Jacob Herskind puts it: I paint happy pictures, I paint decorative pictures; but beneath the surface there has to be a layer of mysticism, of philosophy, of a hey wait a minuteness. When you hurry past a painting and pay it unconscious attention out of the corner of your eye, it has to feel pleasing, positive, humorous and decorative. But, when you stop to take a closer look, the painting has to offer something more  things unseen are to be seen.

Perhaps Jacob Herskind's visual world can best be compared with that of newspapers' Sunday supplements - giving something small to one and all. The themes of his motifs focus on people wearing glasses (spectacular people?) heroes, icons and idols, cats and dogs, birds, grand politics and natural disasters, love, the history of art, ethics, metaphysics and much, much more the points of focus in Jacob Herskind's works are not in the motifs themselves but in the interpretation of each and every one of his themes.

In recent years Jacob Herskind's works have been shown in separate exhibitions in Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Hamburg, London and New York. Between exhibitions he has worked on commissions from the Copenhagen Stock Exchange, Volkswagen, Ferrari (Denmark), Mercedes Classic, Novo Nordisk, the Egmont Group and Credit Suisse.

Herskind's world: Jacob Herskind lived for some time in Copenhagen, Hongkong, Hamburg, Amsterdam and London.