Jorgen Hansen

1922 - 2008, Santa Barbara

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Jorgen Hansen

Jorgen Hansen, 85, concluded a lifelong career in art when he passed away on February 24, in his 47th year of teaching. Born in Chicago, and the son of noted Danish expressionist portrait painter Ejnar Hansen, Jorgen had his first one-person show at the Los Angeles Biltmore Hotel at the age of 12. He served as a navigator/bombardier in WWII, before attending the Department of Architecture at UC Berkeley, the Jepson Art Institute, and the USC School of Fine Arts. After studying in Paris at L’Academie de la Grande Chaumiere and in Mexico, where he taught at Mexico City College, Hansen completed his degree in fine arts at the University of California at Santa Barbara. He taught at Ventura College, served as the educational curator of the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, and participated in group shows in Paris, Mexico City, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Pasadena. Since 1978, he taught Figure Drawing in the Santa Barbara Adult Education program, where he built a devoted following. “I encourage students to view art, not as a way of earning a living,” he remarked in a 2005 interview, “but as a process of self-discovery that comes together as a symbolic product, a personal resolution of conflicts.” Hansen is survived by two sons, Soren Hansen and Leif Hansen, and two grandchildren.

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