Ejler Bille: "To Figurer, Samsø, 1943. Signed, titled and dated on the reverse. Painted recto et verso. Oil on canvas. 117 x 101 cm. To Figurer (Two Figures), Samsø, 1943. Signed, titled and dated on the reverse. Painted recto et verso. Oil on canvas. 117 x 101 cm. Exhibited: "Ejler Bille 90 år", Silkeborg Kunstmuseum and Gl. Holtegaard, 2000-2001, cat. no. 50, ill. 43 in the catalogue. Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist by the present owner's grandparents. The painting has not previously been offered for sale. Ejler Bille is one of the leading figures in the development of the spontaneous-abstract art in Denmark. As a co-founder of the artist group "Linien? (The Line) and later as a member of CoBrA, he stands as a link between the international trends and the domestic environments. In Ejler Bille?s paintings typical Danish culture embraces the rest of the world. "All art is a movement within itself, which causes us to believe that what we call progress makes art bigger and better. But if we reach the innermost chamber of the heart, where the blood pulsates, we must acknowledge that it has never moved even an inch forward. Man has always lived, fought and loved. Art mirrors life, it reflects itself in it," says Ejler Bille in the book ?Et tilbageblik? (A Retrospective). Bille initially works as a sculptor, but during a stay in Paris in the late 30s he changes his focus. Painting is hereafter his primary form of expression. About the same time Jorn and Bille begin a lively exchange of artistic ideas and theories. Bille spends the summer of 1942 with Jorn on the west coast of Jutland, which can be seen as a culmination of this dialogue. Hence, the painting "Two Figures", made on the island of Samsø in 1943, is from a time when the unique style that would later characterize Bille truly falls into place. "Bille knows that the adventure is found in the ordinary, and he knows its origin is in the meeting between elation and the calmness of the mind. Between the two exists the elasticity, which is the springboard in his art, the driving force behind its lyrical richness," writes the poet Eske K. Mathiesen about the artist. Bille?s artwork is frail and delicately built up as a jumble of small individual stories that merrily weaves in and out of each other. At the same time they are overwhelming in their detail, a dense microcosm, or a cacophony of voices coming together and forming a solid and unbreakable resonance. The experience of which depends entirely on the viewer: If you go exploring and let your gaze glide across the painting?s individual components, consisting of powerful colours and figures, or if you move a few steps back and let yourself be seduced by the entire surface of the painting. Estimates : 800000/1000000 DKK