Per ung

Per Ungs Halvorsen statue, Oslo

Per Erik Ung (born June 5, 1933 in Oslo as Per Erik Ohlsen ; † June 20, 2013 , ibid) was a Norwegian sculptor of the realistic-naturalistic school.

life and work

Training and work until 1970

The son of a master mason from Oslo took the surname of his Swedish great-grandfather in 1949 at the age of 16. He decided early on to pursue an artistic career. After private studies, he attended the State Art Academy (Statens Kunstakademi) in his hometown between 1952 and 1955 and the Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London from 1961 to 1962 . His teachers at the two universities represented very different art concepts. While the Norwegian Per Palle Storm emphasized an essentialist and naturalistic perspective, the Briton Anthony Caro revolutionized sculpture with abstract objects made of iron and steel. Ung already indicated in his early works which direction he would choose: he deliberately distinguished himself from modernism and oriented himself towards a realistic, mimetic art.

His first major commission still betrayed contemporary influence. In bronze executed statue of the actress Johanne Dybwad before Nationaltheatret in Oslo (1956 revealed 1962) is characterized by a reduction in the form in which it was not unusual at that time. Other large figurative works followed, including the cement relief Breastfeeding Mother (1968), which was created for a hospital in Asker . A romantic self-image permeated with pathos is revealed by a crucifix made in 1970 ( Tasta kirke , Stavanger ), which depicts the artist as a martyr.

Mythological themes

In the further course of the seventies he tried to combine his figurative form with “stylized and constructive elements”. The Frau und Möwen (1974) fountain in the Etterstad district of Oslo shows a standing figure, lost in thought, surrounded by three birds attached to a steel pipe. One of his floating figures also executed in three versions and now in Hamar , Harstad and hoarding to be seen floating girl , with the limitation of his own creation (1976) the artist by the gravity reflected.

If the swimming girl was a variation on the Nereid theme, Ung often dealt with mythological subjects in the following years. His Euterpe (1978, Haugesund Town Hall ), which is based on the muse of the same name , once again contrasts the physical heaviness of a figure with the lightness of one of its attributes , here a ribbon that Euterpe swings around her body and turns her into a dancer. With the help of the figures borrowed from ancient tradition, Ung decidedly timeless expressions of human existence such as joy, sadness, suffering, love and eroticism. Again and again the artist occupied himself with the relationship between men and women, for example in Eros and Psyke (1983, on the grounds of the Norwegian Veterinary College ). His group Stay Only ... is a hyper-realistic version of the subject , a couple deep in conversation at a café table (1996, Aker Brygge ).

Sculptures of Norwegian personalities

Per Ung's bronze statue of actress Wenche Foss

Per Ung's most famous works include bronze sculptures of Norwegian personalities. As early as the 1970s he modeled the Norwegian Crown Prince Haakon and his sister, Princess Märtha Louise . In Stavanger he created a monument in honor of Admiral Horve . This was followed by depictions of the figure skater Sonja Henie (1985, Oslo), the polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen (1993, in front of the Fram Museum ), the composer Johan Halvorsen (2003, Oslo), the resistance fighter Gunnar Sønsteby (2007, Oslo) and the Actress Wenche Foss (2007, in front of the Oslo National Theater).

The increasing tendency towards conventional realism that can be seen in these works, paired with a lack of ironic distance and the artist's commitment to old masters such as Michelangelo , Bernini and Rodin , brought him - like his contemporary and friend Odd Nerdrum - the accusation of "tame pastiche art" or even kitsch . His large figurative sculpture Frau Fortuna on the Square of the Council of Europe in Oslo (2005) was seen by critics as an example of a purely decorative, conflict-free art in the service of commercial interests. Per Ung himself repeatedly distanced himself from the “art elite”; at the same time, he committed himself to the premodern tradition and an art that is "removed from time and place".

Private

Per Ung was married twice. The artist's first marriage resulted in two sons. Together with his second wife, the sculptor Elena Engelsen, he adopted another boy.

Exhibitions

After his first one-man show in 1956 in the clubs of the Association of Young Artists (Unge Kunstneres Samfunn) in Oslo, the artist's exhibits were shown in numerous locations in Norway. He exhibited together with Odd Nerdrum in 1983 at the Bellmann Gallery in New York (Norway: In the Romantic Tradition) . In 2004 the Vigeland Museum in Oslo showed a retrospective of his entire oeuvre. - As part of collective exhibitions, Per Ung was represented at the Nordic Art Show in Hanover in 1965 and at the Stockholm Art Fair in 1981 .

Awards

Among other awards, Per Ung received a three-year work grant from the Norwegian state in 1971. On November 1, 2007 he was appointed "First Class Knight" of the Order of Saint Olav .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://www.vg.no/rampelys/artikkel.php?artid=10111460
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Ung i solnedgang Dagbladet, June 26, 2004.
3. ^ ^{A b} Jan Kokkin, Per Ung, Norsk Biografisk Leksikon.
4. ↑ Gunnar Danbolt, Norsk art history. Picture and sculpture from vikingtida til i dag . Samlaget, Oslo 1997, p. 297.
5. ↑ Per Gunnar Tverbakk / Tone Hansen, Byrådet som gateselger ( Memento of the original from June 16, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Aftenposten, October 20, 2006. 
6. ↑ Quoted from, Bjørn Li, Kunsten tilbake til det menneskelige. In: Ders., Per Ung . Labyrinth Press, Oslo 2004.
7. ↑ Directory of important exhibitions by the artist ( Memento of the original from September 11, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Website of Galerie Tonne, accessed on May 5, 2010 

literature

• Jan Kokkin: Per Ung . - In: Norsk Biografisk Leksikon .
• Per Ung / Arvid Møller: Per Ung in conversation with Arvid Møller . Labyrinth Press, Oslo 1991, ISBN 82-7393-012-2 .
• Bjørn Li [u. a.]: Per Ung . Labyrinth Press, Oslo 2004, ISBN 82-7393-142-0 .

Web links

• Website of the artist with numerous photos of his work (Norwegian, English)