Mogens Balle, Copenhagen, Denmark

Mogens Balle was born as Mogens Erik Schack Balle in Copenhagen in 1921. He was active as a painter and writer. First, he learned to be an architect, but he discontinued this course because he wanted to engage with visual arts. His first works are naturalistic. From 1945, this changed when he switched to abstract painting. Common motifs in his oeuvre are mythical and fantasy creatures. A year later, in 1946, Balle traveled to Paris and it is here where he came into contact with artists who similarly worked expressively and spontaneously. Balle was a co-founder of the Danish artist union Spirals (1947). Asger Jorn (1914–73) is the reason why Balle came in contact with the members of the CoBrA movement in 1949. Balle’s work was along with that of Karel Appel (1921–2006), Corneille (1922–2010), Asger Jorn and Egill Jacobsen (1910–98), exhibited in Paris, but not during the CoBrA exhibitions in Amsterdam (1949) and Liege (1951). After the disintegration of the CoBrA group, the works of Balle became more spontaneous and abstract. From the 50s, he created several peinture-mots (word paintings). He did this with former CoBrA member Christian Dotremont (1922–79). Peinture-mots, words and pictures are merged as one whole in a single work. From the 1960s, Balle began to make bronze fantasy figures.