Born in Copenhagen, Haugen Sørensen had little training in art apart from evening courses in drawing and, after he arrived in Paris in 1950, brief introductions to etching and lithography in the schools run by Stanley William Hayter and Johnny Friedlander.

His work also benefited from his encounters with Asger Jorn, Echaurren Matta and Antonio Saura whom he met at the Clot et George workshop run by Peter Bramsen.

[4] By the time he moved back to Denmark in 1967, Haugen Sørensen had developed his own style of Expressionist figurative painting in vivid colours, ironically presenting man's animal instincts and the absurdity of life.

In the 1970s, he began to use acrylics, often with several layers of paint, in works including Pastorale med indbyggede katastrofer (1975), Dyr og damer (1979) and Frokost i det grønne (1979).

[1] Since the 1980s, Haugen Sørensen has become one of Denmark's most productive religious artists, decorating more than 25 churches with forceful, provocative works in a variety of art forms including painting, frescos, stained glass, ceramics and sculpture.