Knud Bjørn-Knudsen 1921-2000
Knud Bjørn-Knudsen was born in Horsens on 21st May 1921. He was a Danish painter and sculptor.
Bjørn-Knudsen had no formal art training. He first exhibited (at the age of 37) at the annual Artists Easter Exhibition (Kunstnernes Påskeudstilling), Aarhus in 1958. Bjørn-Knudsen continued to exhibit with Kunstnernes Påskeuds at their various Summer and Autumn exhibitions until 1965.
In 1965, he was the co-founder of the avant-garde Danish artists group Passepartout (a group affiliated with Galerie Passepartout). Other members included Frithioff Johansen (1939-2015) and Jens-Flemming Sørensen (1933-1987). They exhibited as a group between 1966 and 1969.
Bjørn-Knudsen also exhibited at the Charlottenborg Autumn Exhibition (Charlottenborgs Efterårsudstilling) (1971), Sønderjyllands Kunstmuseum, with his wife Else, (1974), Nordjyllands Kunstmuseum (1975), Sculpture in Sakskøbing (1978) and Lolland-Falster Exhibition (1978).
As well as producing many public works of art - most notably Akrobatfantasi (1968 / restored 2014) in Brande - In the early 1970s, alongside the artists Holger Rasmussen, Erik Lagoni, and Peer Bruun, Bjørn-Knudsen was part of the Bjørnebanden group of artists who produced artworks which they gave to the IRMA supermarket chain to reproduce on the sides of the recycled, reuseable shopping bags they were producing at the time.
Examples of Bjørn-Knudsens work are hed in the collections of Storstrøms and Esbjerg Art Museums and the Aabenraa Museum.
Knud Bjørn-Knudsen died in 2000, aged 79.
