Audio file 152-2

[continuation from 152-1] Wonga feels that the Hard Edge group was threatened by Sonja Ferlov Mancoba's non-conformation with their full conception of geometry, that when they made her choose, she chose CoBrA seeing it as offering her more freedom

In 1948, Sonja Ferlov Mancoba exhibited with both Linien II (which showed mostly "Hard Edge" artists) and Høst (which showed more spontaneous artists) as a guest. In 1949, she joined Høst as a member.

[tape stopped and restarted] Wonga speaks of Richard Mortensen, Robert Jacobsen and Richard Winther distrusting the spontaneous as "romantic" and identifying with futurism and constructivism (referring to Malevich and Mondrian)

Wonga recounts the beginnings of Linien II with Richard Mortensen and Robert Jacobsen seeing Hard Edge art, such as that by Wassily Kandinsky, in 1947 at Galerie Denise René in Paris

Linien II is unrelated to the older Linien association. Linien II came to focus on Hard Edge art whilst the older (defunct) Linien focused on Surrealism

Wonga compares Sonja Ferlov Mancoba's artistic position relative to the Hard Edge group's position; Ferlov Mancoba exhibited her 1940-1946 "Skulptur" with Linien II which Winther claimed as illustrative of the Hard Edge form

Wonga continues about the artistic quarrel, that Asger Jorn complains in Land og Folk newspaper that Linien II was against his work as not being sufficiently abstract - Ejler Bille stated the argument retreads that from the 1920s; Wonga speaks of Constructivism (references Naum Gabo)

On the "other side" of Linien II ("Hard Edge") are artists like Asger Jorn and Eric Thommesen who advocated spontaneity and the intuitive.

Wonga continues that Eric Thommesen was a communist resistance fighter but argued with the party about artistic freedom; that Ejler Bille also wrote against social realism being the only expression; Wonga mentions an exhibition in Charlottenberg in 1947 in which the social realists sided with the abstract artists' views for openness

Wonga asks about an interview that Ernest may have given to Land og Folk but Ernest cannot remember; Wonga raises another later interview to Radio Danmark which details are lost save those who remembered hearing it

[tape stopped and restarted] Wonga raises subject of CoBrA at the beginning of the Cold War, attacked by those wanting to intellectualise art and by those who defined as communist; Wonga sees that CoBrA successfully defending against those external charges its demise was to come from within

Asger Jorn, together with the Dutch Experimental Group of artists, organised Cobra. The Dutch Experimental Group were invited as special guests to Høst's 1948 exhibition.

[tape ends]