Jørgen Sedgwick was born in Copenhagen, Denmark around 1927. He worked for the Resistance during the war and immigrated to London, England in 1946 to pursue higher education in the arts. Sedgwick subsequently established himself as a figurative and abstract painter and a lecturer.
Painter, print-maker, and teacher, Jørgen Francis Sedgwick was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, around 1927. However, his birth is also noted in the consular registers of 1931-1935. Sedgwick’s father, George Russell Sedgwick, was born in Manhattan, USA and his mother, Inger Hordis née Nordholt, was born in Denmark. Inger was an artist and also known as the ‘Voice of Denmark’; based at the BBC in London, she broadcast to Nazi-occupied Denmark during the war. Sedgwick, who was brought up by his grandparents in Denmark, immigrated to London in 1946, having worked for the Resistance. Between 1948 and 1952, he studied at Regent Street Polytechnic (now University of Westminster) and Beckenham School of Art. After graduation, Sedgwick struggled to find employment, and his job applications were regularly rejected. For six months, he survived on National Assistance. He later taught at Central St Martin’s and was a Senior Lecturer at Croydon School of Art. In 1951, he married Christine Sykes (a fellow student from Regent Polytechnic) in Bromley, Kent. Christine switched from teaching part-time in adult education in London to becoming a full-time artist and printmaker. The couple lived in Norwood, south London, and Sedgwick maintained a studio on Harold Road in Crystal Palace. In the 1970s, they relocated to Lytton Cottage in Halesworth, Suffolk. They had two daughters, Ann and Deirdre, whom they often used as models. A journalist described Sedgwick as a ‘dumpy man with long strands of brown hair falling across his brow and ears […]. Dressed in an open neck tartan shirt, woollen cardigan and baggy trousers, he looked like a struggling artist,’ (Cowe, 1957, p. 6). In the same article, Sedgwick then spoke about the difficulties of financially supporting a family as an artist.
Sedgwick's artistic style evolved throughout his career. He often worked in gouache, producing both figurative and abstract works. His oeuvre includes seascapes, atmospheric landscapes, intimate interiors, and scenes from everyday life. His figurative style is reminiscent of Post-Impressionism, with its visible brushstrokes, although he occasionally rendered his subjects with greater detail. The geometric simplification of space and form in his works, and the occasionally distorted perspective, bear a slight resemblance to the formal, analytical approach of Cézanne and the Cubists. In the 1950s, he was intrigued by natural forms, such as earth, rocks, and tree roots, further characterised in his work by the use of earth tones and the incorporation of innovative materials, such as sand. In 1959, he completed a life-size wooden statue commemorating the young son of shipping tycoon, Cecil Crosthwaite, who tragically died in 1944 aged six.
Printmaking was a consistent thread in his career; during the 1960s, Sedgwick produced etchings and aquatints, and in the following decade, his focus shifted towards relief prints. In his abstract works from the 1970s, the emphasis is on a reduced geometric vocabulary. His interlocking forms that suggest depth are reminiscent of the spatial explorations found in the work of the Op Art movement. His colour palette is varied: in figurative works, the palette is quite restrained, dominated by blues and earthy tones, but his abstract pieces are more vividly coloured. By the 1980s, Sedgwick's overall palette had brightened, his shapes had become more defined, and his work prominently reflected his interest in myths and legends. During this period, the influence of the East Anglian seascape became prominent.
Sedgwick exhibited extensively during his life. His work was featured in the Young Contemporaries (1950); at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition for a number of years (1953, 1955, 1956, 1964, 1984); Royal Society of British Artists (from 1952), Allied Artists Association (from 1954). In 1955, he exhibited at Helen Lessore's Beaux Arts Gallery and in 1959 at the John Moores Liverpool Exhibition. After the establishment of the Alpha Group of painters in 1967, he was involved in collective exhibitions with other members, including Michael Browett, John Macleod, Malcolm MacLeod, and Rosemary Smith. Sedgwick exhibited at Reading University (1969) and at the South London Art Gallery (1972). After moving to Suffolk in the 1970s he regularly exhibited at the local Halesworth Gallery. In 1979, had an exhibition at the Greenwich Theatre Gallery in London. In 1981, he took part in a group exhibition at the Towner Gallery, Eastbourne. Jørgen Sedgwick died in Halesworth, Suffolk, England on 9 December 2008. In 2010, the Halesworth Gallery hosted a retrospective featuring Sedgwick's work alongside creations by his wife and prints and drawings by their daughter, Anna. In the UK public domain his work is represented in the collection of the Cuming Museum, Southwark. Originally located in Walworth Road in Elephant and Castle, its collections have been rehoused in a new Southwark Heritage Centre since 2021.
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Jørgen Sedgwick]
Publications related to [Jørgen Sedgwick] in the Ben Uri Library