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PIET HEIN –
a Danish loner in the 20th century
THE ETERNAL TWINS Taking fun as simply fun and earnestness in earnest shows how thoroughly thou none of the two discernest.
Versatility – creativity - productivity - A Renaissance Man poet artist essayist mathematician inventor designer Impatiens – Busy Lizzie Jarl Borgen’s impression of Piet Hein Astrid Lindgren’s comment
Piet Hein 1905 – 1996
His mother, Estrid Hein, ophthalmologist His father, Hjalmar Hein, civil engineer
Piet Hein (1577-1629
- admiral and director of the Dutch West India Company
Many studies – a certain rootlessness:
• philosophy (University of Copenhagen)
• painting in Stockholm
•(Albert Engstrøm – his teacher)
• theoretical physics
•(Niels Bohr – his teacher)
His enthusiasm for technique The dynamo was Piet Hein’s best friend “ (...) when somebody pressed one of the buttons, the engine woke up, made a sinking movement and thought for a while: what was it, oh yes! And then it started with a wonderfully spinning noise (...). When starting up and stopping, the engine emitted blue and green fireworks and smelled electric, and sitting in the pitch dark room with my bag against the wall, I saw the many sloping walls wonderfully lit around this dark yarn ball creature. You never forget that you have been friend with a dynamo as a child. Everything might change, but long time ago there is a creature you have shared your life with.”
Fascination of the helicopter 1947 - a small book The Helicopter
Saw the helicopter as the perfect means of transportation in future cities Divided the airspace in ‘roads’ – lots of space
Piet Hein and science Niels Bohr was a guest in Piet Hein’s childhood home – became his teacher at the university. Piet Hein was very active at the Niels Bohr Institute. Wrote a booklet on Niels Bohr’s atomic theory (1932) Contact with Albert Einstein – became friends later on.
1930’es – a period of cultural radicalism ”a mindset based on respect for the individuel seen in an international perspective and with a social conscience. With an intellectual heresy revealing conventional thinking, hypocricy, phrases and clichés, with an openness that not only looks at the labels, but critically considers the reality behind them. Leading figure: Poul Henningsen
Young artists’ association with Piet Hein Tove Ditlevsen Halfdan Rasmussen Esther Nagel Morten Nielsen Sonja Hauberg
The relationship with Tove Ditlevsen From “Poison” – autobiography from1971 Piet Hein was the man of the world and he encourages Tove Ditlevsen to divorce Viggo F. Møller. Piet Hein is not portrayed with entirely positive words. He is a womanizer and very self- conscious “...he is a dangerous man who will make many women unhappy” - said by a former mistress.
From April 1940 Piet Hein wrote Grooks in “At tænke sig” in Politiken. Anti-nazi grooks with the meaning between the lines 1943 forced to leave Denmark Lives in Argentina till 1945
Great Bear
Piet Hein’s private life 4 marriages – 5 sons 1937 – Gunvor Holck 1942 – Gerda Ruth Conheim – Juan Alvaro og Andrés 1947 – Anne Cathrina Krøyer Pedersen – Lars 1955 – Gerd Ericsson († 1968) – Jotun og Hugo
Piet Hein – a citizen of the world Lived in Argentina and England Many travels – especially in North and South America and Europe International organizations: •1935 to 1955 - a board member of the Danish branch of The Open Door International •One World association •The League for Tolerance •The international P.E.N. Club Many international friends.
Now all super powers have super fortresses to claim their super interests, which of course is super peace. So now it is important that none of the super clever commits a super stupidity.
Notorius Jubelco: Word
Piet Hein - a master of repartee • Sadruddin Aga Khan and the little mermaid • with the lady outside the antique shop • with Charles Chaplin
Many awards: Alexander Graham Bell Silver Bell (1968)
Emil Aarestrup Medal (1969) Honorary member of the Students’ Organization(1970) Industrial Design-prize (1971) Die gute Industrieform (1971) Honorary doctor at Yale University(1972) Huitième Salon Internationale du Lumiaire (1973) Honorary craftsman of the year (1975) Storm P. award(1978) Nobel Lecturer (1983) Medal Ingenio et Arti (1985) Annual Award from the Danish Design Association (1989) Tietgen Medal(1990) Honorary Doctor at University of Odense (1991)
The philosopher and the essayist To combine the technical world with the artistic. From natural science
• technology enthusiasm • inventiveness
From arts
• the right and responsibility of the individual • common sense • questioning existing norms
“The Stream and the Jar” – fables and essays
(1963) Citation - Leonardo da Vinci:
“He, who can walk to the stream, does not go to the jar” Piet Hein calls for:
A culture that is not another layer on an old culture. But has its own roots in nature.
” The Tree of Knowledge” An essay on • specializing opposed to creating coherence A fact for Piet Hein: the world is coherent About school and education: separation in subjects instead of interdisciplinary studies About the big inventions: to think differently and across the disciplines
“Tecnotism and Cultism”
Summarized: To bridge the gap between technique and culture. Cultism: “the attitude of people who are working with humanities as culture founded on earlier culture.” Tecnotism: “the attitude of people, working with science and technique. They have no sense of culture – but have roots deep in nature. Or ‘cultists ‘ are people, who know the goal, but not the methods of getting there. ‘Tecnotists’ are people who know the methods, but has lost track of the goal.
Generating ideas in science and art. ”First you have to work very hard, walking along paths in all directions in your field, but then everything has to be lowered into subconsciousness. And up from the subconscious emerge ( if you have the right spiral tunnel leading into eternity) complete, well- balanced overall views of unity.”
Piet Hein allowed himself to be critical of the theory of relativity – in the 1930’s Visited Einstein’s home several times. Admires Einstein’s being in equilibrium, his openness and tolerance. Some Einstein quotations: “Schools, universities and the church form the human being instead of developing them.” “I like the young people who do not believe in old men....like me.” “It is absolutely necessary to defend the individual against society. To break the growing power over human beings performed by the authorities.”
Piet Hein – the poet Poems in various magazines during the 1930s
Poems in the Universe, (1941) The Tenth Muse (1941) 4 poems under the Southerns Cross (1945) Poems of this World (1948); You must plant a Tree (1960); Remember to Love (Love poems and grooks, 1962 ) The Lyre of the Heart (love poems and grooks, 1985);
ATS – at tænke sig - April 14th 1940
Spring melancholy The days are getting longer longer longer What are they longing for? The days getting longer longer longer longing for Saint Hans! Kumbel Kumbell
Politiken after the first poem by Kumbel Kumbell: “After the first grook by Kumbel Kumbell a few days ago, our telephones have been blocked from morning till evening. Especially our female readers demand that Kumbel Kumbell becomes a permanent writer in “At tænke sig”. He is so prudential, according to many people. He owns the modern rhythm, the finest quivering string which can lure the purest tones out of the grey light of the present days.”
Piet
Dutch for Peter – meaning ,stone’
Hein
Dutch for ‘hen’ – Old Danish for whetstone
Kumbl meaning ‘a stone with a inscription’ – a memorial stone His name is translated into
Kumbel Kumbell
short form: Kumbel Kumbel as rune roaster
The genre term: GRUK
GRin og sUK
Grooks
small aphoristic verses revealing in a minimum of words and with a minimum of lines some basic truth about the human condition. Characterized by: • irony • paradox • brevity • precise use of language • sophisticated rhythms and rhymes
For reading Piet Hein’s grooks , please go to the following links: www.leptonica.com www.archimedes-lab.org/grooks.html www.sophilos.net/GrooksofPietHein.htm Or simply google grooks Also www.piethein.dk – also in English Life Magazine 1966 http://books.google.dk/books?id=lFYEAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PP1&pg=PA64&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=true
About Piet Hein’s grooks ”Many grooks are expressing what everybody is just about to think, while others bring a new perspective on everyday issues and present experiences and observations of use to others and, more or less direct instructions in the art of living.
From Gyldendal’s history of literature (1974)
The friendship with Charles Chaplin A letter from Chaplin about the Kumbel poet and his own tramp The individual human being in a world of bigger forces.
Sources of inspiration
.
•Fritz Jürgensen •Halfdan Rasmussen •Storm P. •Christian Morgenstern •Erich Kästner •Ogden Nash
One can learn a lot from the old sayings, but one doesn’t
Storm P.’s flies
As a case can be seen from several sides, I will ask the audience to sit in a circle. Honesty is required if you sell elastic by the meter.
Notorius Jubelco Notorius Jubelco is a very clever man who splashes wise words about in Politiken’s column "At Tænke Sig". First time June 6, 1947.
According to Notorius Jubelco “One must not underestimate the total agreement among the super powers, which is that they after all share exactly the same opinion of each other.” • • • “Of course, you can survive without rowan jelly, but what a life!”
A superellipse, also known as a Lamé curve after Gabriel Lamé is
a geometric figure defined in the Cartesian coordinate system as
the set of all points (x, y) with
where n, a and b are positive numbers.
Science and design combined