John Olsen: "Source" Dec 3 - Jan 11 1997

"Source" is Danish artist John Olsen's first exhibition in New York. Presented here is the core of the work shown in the Danish Pavilion at the 1995 Venice Biennale.

John Olsen was born in Roskilde on 25th May 1939. He lives and works on the farm Sundsgarden near Fjellebro on the island of Funen.

From "Animal Fables"(1994) by poet Vagn Lundbye, illustrated by John Olsen:

THE BEAST WITHIN  - trans. by W. Glyn Jones

In all of us there dwells a beast
expressing our most hidden thought
To tell us it has never ceased
that our real selves should here be sought
This beast is what you were at first
and has your true self always nursed

Never heart unseeing stays
this is all the fun and banter
Life, you see, 's a complex maze
and the beast waits at its centre
But you can't see it till the last
the day your final hour is past