Woodcut by Erik Hagens, Denmark 1984

Woodcut (untitled) by Erik Hagens, Denmark 1984,
Signed and numbered 13/25, 
Artwork size: 60 cm H x 75 cm W
Unframed.

Erik Hagens studied painting at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts from 1961 to 1966 and was trained as a lithographer at the experimental art school, Eks-skolen. In the 1960s, he became an active participant in the cross-border experiments in art and life.

Erik Hagens is one of the few contemporary artists who have undertaken to create images of the (Danes’) everyday life. It has always been his goal to make pictures that can be used by the many and makes sense for so-called "ordinary people". Hagens is a great picture narrator who captures daily life in a mass offering of details. He portrays human life in the present day with motorism, industrialism, consumer culture and the mass media's recollection, our common "welfare day". Most often, his pictures present us both to the facade and to the many cheerful, tragic and eerie things that take place beneath the surface.

Among Hagens' most significant works are the enamels he created together with his wife Ursula Munch-Petersen for Espergærde Bibliotek in 1990 and the 40-metre long mural Esbjerg-evangeliet (2003–05) he made for the CVU-Vest social school in Esbjerg. It depicts modern scenes based on some of the better known Bible stories, mostly with a humorous touch.