Hans Jorgensen's HouseHans Jorgensen (1889 - 1977)

Hans Jorgensen was born in Lincoln County in 1889 to parents who had immigrated to the United States from Denmark. As a young man, Jorgensen attended grade school for a few hours a day while assisting his family with farming duties at home. Jorgensen stayed in farm work for forty-three years, from 1912 to 1955, before retiring to the house where he would create his art environment in the town of Lincoln. As is the case for many vernacular artists, Jorgensen cited his newly found free time post-retirement as the impetus for beginning his artistic endeavors: “Well, I retired, and my wife died,” “I had to do something to keep out of mischief.” Jorgensen collected farming implements, machine parts, tools, and other objects from junkpiles in the area for the construction of his yard display. His father helped him quarry local stone required in the building of the home’s stone fence posts, to which Jorgensen attached elaborately soldered fences comprised of stirrups, horseshoes, and chains. Dozens of salvaged license plates and wheels of varied color and size were installed on the facade of the home. Living just twenty miles from Lucas, Kansas, Jorgensen visited Garden of Eden and met artist S. P. Dinsmoor prior to the latter artist's death in 1932. Upon being interviewed in 1975, Jorgensen claimed that he thought of his own yard display as a collection rather than an art environment––he elaborated: “Would you call that art? It’s not fancy…Well, if I’d went to school I wouldn’t have done this, would I?...This is oddball stuff. They’s nobody else that built anything like this. You don’t do what the majority does. Then you’re wrong.” Following Jorgensen’s death, the house was purchased by the Lincoln County Historical Society, which exhibits the home as the Kyne House after its original nineteenth century owners. Though much of Jorgensen's installation has been removed from the property, a handful of wagon wheels set into the the building’s facade are still visible.

Narrative by Gabrielle Christiansen, 2024

Sources: 

• Hans Jorgensen and Willem Volkersz. Transcript of interview with Hans Jorgensen, 1975 March 7. Willem Volkersz interviews, 1975-1985. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
• Kansas Grassroots Art Center sites booklet. "Hans Jorgensen." Collection of the Kansas Grassroots Art Center.

Gabrielle Christiansen, Gregg Blasdel

216 W Lincoln Ave
Lincoln, Kansas, 67455 us
Latitude/Longitude: 39.0404485 / -98.1502852

View Larger Map in New Window