Niels Borch Jensen

Niels Borch Jensen printing, 2021

Niels Borch Jensen founded his Copenhagen print studio in 1979 and since that time he has established a reputation as one of the world’s leading producers and publishers of prints.

Over some 45 years Niels Borch Jensen has collaborated with more than 230 leading international artists, creating prints with luminaries such as William Anastasi, Georg Baselitz, Huma Bhabha, Tacita Dean, Thomas Demand, Olafur Eliasson, Gunter Förg, Carsten Höller, Ragnar Kjartansson, Per Kirkeby, Julie Mehretu, Tal R, Al Taylor and Danh Vo, amongst many others. Through this process he has amassed a comprehensive  archive of a diverse array of prints. While a collection of prints editioned between 1979 and 1987 are held in the Vejle Art Museum in Denmark, the remaining collection of nearly 4500 works form his ongoing archive. They represent a print from every edition he has produced since that time, and it is currently valued at over 4,5 million euros.

There is a strong contingent of European artists represented in the archive, including a large proportion of works by Scandinavian artists, as well as artists from North and South America. This is due in part to Jensen’s extensive artistic network that extends from Copenhagen to Berlin, London, New York and Mexico City.

 

Examples from the archive

The largest holdings in the archive are works by artists with whom Borch Jensen established a long-standing collaboration over many years to create a diverse range of prints. Danish artist Per Kirkeby (1938 – 2018) was the first artist to collaborate with Niels Borch Jensen in his newly founded workshop 1979. It was here that he first experimented with colour prints, different formats and printing techniques, including the production of monotypes and monoprints. The collaboration continued for almost four decades until 2017, during which time he created the vast majority of Kirkeby’s print oeuvre – some 400 prints, making the artist one of Denmark’s most prolific printmakers.

Per Kirkeby in the workshop, 1989

Per Kirkeby, 11 Radierungen, Blatt V, 1992

Borch and Kirkeby viewing a print, 2000

Per Kirkeby, 9 Color Etchings, No. 1, 2003

Per Kirkeby, Untitled, 2016

Georg Baselitz (b.1938, Germany) has an ongoing collaboration with Borch Editions since 1990, working closely with master printer Mette Ulstrup as well as Niels Borch Jensen. The collaborative process is facilitated by regular visits to Baselitz’s studio near Munich to develop each new series. There are 446 Baselitz prints in the archive to date, with another two series currently in development during 2024.

Georg Baselitz, Dänen Träne, 1992

Georg Baselitz in his studio with Mette Ulstrup and Borch c. 1999

George Baselitz, 35 Jahre später, 2005

Georg Baselitz, Französischer Fuß (French foot), 2020

Georg Baselitz, Norweger Rückwärts I, 2012

Georg Baselitz, Deer, 2021

Mette Ulstrup printing a Georg Baselitz etching, 2023

New York based artist Julie Mehretu (b. 1970) has been working with Niels Borch Jensen since 2015, completing the two significant series of prints Epigraph, Damacus 2016 and Slouching Towards Bethlehem 2020. They each combine complex layers of etching techniques with photogravure to create nuanced prints with an extraordinary sense of depth and tactility. 

Borch and Julie Mehretu in the workshop, 2015 (above and right)

Master printers Tom Jennions, Mette Ulstrup and Julie Dam with Borch, 2020

Danish artist, Tal R (b.1967) was still an art student when he started working with Niels Borch Jensen in 1995, and their collaboration continues today. Their approach to making prints based on free-ranging experimentation has resulted in over 330 editions in a large variety of techniques. Most recently he explored  the painterly technique of monotype for the first time and produced a new series of colourful monotypes.

Tal R and Borch, 2013

Olafur Eliasson, The constant colour circle, from The colour circle series – Part 1, 2008

Olafur Eliasson, The double constant colour circle, from The colour circle series – Part 1, 2008

Olafur Eliasson, The triple constant colour circle from The colour circle series – Part 1, 2008

Berlin-based artist Olafur Eliasson (b. 1967) has worked exclusively with BORCH Editions to make his prints, completing ten significant series of works with Niels Borch Jensen. This includes the four-part Cartographic Series developed over a period of six years between 2001 and 2007. There are 159 prints by Eliasson in the archive that date from 1996 to 2009.

Printmaking has become an essential part of renowned English artist Tacita Dean’s (b. 1965) practice since she first collaborated with Niels Borch Jensen in 2001.

Analogue technologies play a central role in her oeuvre, which incorporates film, drawing and printmaking. She employs the technique of photogravure in combination with other techniques to transfer her poetic visual narratives into the realm of prints. To date she has made the vast majority of her print oeuvre with Niels Borch Jensen, including 16 significant series of works, numbering some 126 prints in all.

Niels Borch Jensen continues to establish new collaborations with artists from around the world, whilst further experimenting with techniques and seeking new methods to achieve their visions. Ragnar Kjartansson, an Icelandic artist whose practice encompasses performance, painting, video installations and drawing, has collaborated with Niels Borch Jensen since 2020 to create three significant series of prints in the techniques of woodcut and etching.

The most recent collaboration is with Norwegian artist Frida Orupabo (b. 1986), whose practice incorporates found imagery from a myriad of sources. Together with BORCH Editions, Frida has transformed her digital assemblages into a series of large-scale photogravures that feature figures emerging in vivid, glowing greens from the velvety black backgrounds.

Master printer Tom Jennions with Frida Orupabo in the workshop, 2024

Borch with Tacita Dean, 2023

Ragnar Kjartansson with Borch, 2019

Borch with master printers Julie Dam and Mette Ulstrup, 2013

Borch in the workshop, 2022

THE LEGACY

 

Niels Borch Jensen’s extensive archive of prints encapsulates a unique perspective of contemporary printmaking by leading artists from America, Scandinavia, as well as Europe more broadly. Ultimately, he would like to find a home for the archive in a public collection so that it can be accessible to future generations.

A full list of artists can be seen below, and a list of all works in the archive with accompanying images can be downloaded here.

Julie Mehretu, Fourth Seal (R 6:7), Slouching Towards Bethlehem, 2020

Mamma Andersson, Det förlorade paradiset, 2019

Carsten Höller, Four Birds, 2015

Al Taylor, Pet Stains (Hank, Henry, Dickel, etc.), 1991

Danh Vo, Untitled, 2014

Per Kirkeby, 9 Color Etchings, No. 9, 2003

Superflex, Free Beer, 2007

Tal R, Trommedreng (detail), from the series Adidas Boy, 2020

Frida Orupabo, Picnic, 2024