After the prolonged trauma of the Second World War, young artists across Europe converged with relief on Paris. Sickened by all the destruction and Hitler’s savage attempt to condemn adventurous modern art as “degenerate”, they were in a mood for new beginnings. None more exuberantly than the ebullient rebels who formed an avant-garde group called Cobra. It was an acronym of Copenhagen, Brussels and Amsterdam, the cities where the group’s members originated. Above all, though, the image of a snake appealed to them. At once unsettling and exotic, it summed up Cobra’s determination to give fresh life to a damaged world “bereft of all belief”.
Carl-Henning Pedersen was one of the group’s most outstanding Danish members. He and his friends, including the equally rebellious Asger