Willy Gordon
Willy Gordon (born July 2, 1918 in Reņģe, Saldus district in Latvia , † July 12, 2003 in Stockholm ) was a Swedish sculptor of the 20th century.
Life
Gordon emigrated with his family from the Baltic states to Malmö in Sweden when he was eight years old . He studied sculpture at the Royal Academy of Arts , today's Konsthögskolan in Stockholm and later with Ossip Zadkine in Paris . Gordon's distinctive sculptures are common in Sweden's public spaces, especially in and around Stockholm.
There are around a dozen of them in Stockholm, which was geographically the center of his life. These include the women (1968) in the center of Fruängen , Lebendes Erz on Karlavägen , a street in the Östermalm district and the steps with Torah in front of the synagogue on Blasieholmen, a peninsula in downtown Stockholm. In Malmö there is a memorial he created to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust .
He also created statues of well-known personalities, such as that of the tenor Jussi Björling , exhibited in the Björling Museum in Borlänge , Evert Taube playing the lute on the Evert Taube Terrace in Riddarholmen or the sculpture by Nobel Prize winner Selma Lagerlöf with the title Crystal of Pain .
The memorial for the Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, also created by Gordon, is located near his house in Lidingö on the island of Lidingö off Stockholm.
Gordon received controversial attention with his sculpture The Gathering . This work stands on Östermalmstorget, the central square of the upscale Stockholm district of the name. It shows a man with a bared member , carrying a piece of meat on his shoulders, in front of a woman lying in a conceptual position. In addition to the controversial discussion of the subject , this group of sculptures has already been the subject of vandalism and emasculating property damage twice, most recently in December 2006 . This work is also available as a scaled-down, limited edition in art stores, one of which is on display in the art collection of Bommersvik College in Sweden as a gift from the artist .
In Gordon's work, the influence of his teacher Zadkine, but also the influences of Eric Grate and Henry Moore, are easy to see.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Malmö Jewish Community: Archive link ( Memento from December 14, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Wallenberg's sculpture in Lidingö: Monumentet över Raoul Wallenberg ( Memento from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Gordon, Willy |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Swedish sculptor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 2, 1918 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Reņģe, Saldus District , Latvia |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 12, 2003 |
| Place of death | Stockholm |