Ejler Bille (1910–2004) initially worked in sculpture. His first works were ceramic vases, made when he was just a high school student. He then went on to study at the School of Arts and Crafts in Copenhagen. These sculptures were initially somewhat representational, depicting birds and other animals. Over time, the sculptures became more and more abstracted, first in plaster, and later created in bronze. He made his debut at the annual Artist’s Autumn Exhibition in 1931.
It was for his paintings however, that Bille would become best known. The first step on this path was his enrollment as a student at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen in 1932. A trip to Berlin and a friend’s reports of the revolution at the Bauhaus school, led him to leave his studies after one semester. The modernism that was emerging, particularly the works of Hans Arp and Kandinsky, was too tantalising for him to wait through a traditional academic training.
Bille was a founding member of the artist’s group Linien which was active between 1934 to 1939. He exhibited alongside fellow artists Richard Mortensen and Vilhelm Bjerke-Pedersen, whom he had studied alongside in Copenhagen. During the Second World War, Bille was part of the artistic community surrounding Helhesten, a radical journal weaponizing modern art and culture in the fight against Nazi occupation. Notably, Bille contributed with a series of mask paintings, a motif he would continue to explore through his career. Several of these artists, including Bille, went on to re-configure under the leadership of Asger Jorn in the ground-breaking CoBrA group, active from 1948 to 1951. One of the key characteristics of the CoBrA artists is their use of bright, unmixed colours – Bille was a master colourist, and his balancing of these elements is among the finest examples of this CoBrA innovation.
Bille travelled to Bali with his wife, the artist Agnete Therkildsen (1900–1993). The couple started collecting Balinese art, and amassed a prodigious collection, which was the subject of an exhibition at the Holstebro Art Museum in 2020. Balinese art, and other cultures he encountered on his travels inspired his work greatly.
Bille’s works are held in collections including Statens Museum for Kunst, Kunsten – Museum of Modern Art Aalborg and Louisiana Museum of Modern Art.