Danish sculpture
Danish sculpture as a nationally recognized art form can be traced back to 1752 when Jacques Saly was commissioned to execute a statue of King Frederick V of Denmark on horseback.
While Bertel Thorvaldsen was undoubtedly the country's most prominent contributor, many other players have produced fine work, especially in the areas of Neoclassicism, Realism, and in Historicism, the latter resulting from growing consciousness of a national identity.
[1] The earliest traces of sculpture in Denmark date from the 12th century when a stonemason known as Horder was active in the east of Jutland and on the island of Funen decorating churches, especially doors and fonts.
[2] From roughly the same period, there are sculpted figures in the granite reliefs depicting the Removal from the Cross in the tympanum above the so-called Cat's Head Door of Ribe Cathedral.
The Flemish sculptor Cornelis Floris from Antwerp produced tombs for Herluf Trolle and Birgitte Gøye (1566–68) in Herlufsholm and for Christian III (1569–79) in Roskilde Cathedral.
After preparing a number of miniature and full-sized models, Saly finally completed his equestrian statue in 1768 as a bronze casting in the Neoclassical style but it was not unveiled in the courtyard at Amalienborg Palace until August 1771, five years after the king's death in 1766.
[7] Johannes Wiedewelt (1731–1802) was one of the primary figures responsible for introducing Neoclassicism to Denmark, inspired by stays in Paris and Rome which were facilitated by travel stipends from the newly established Academy.
Soon after his return to Denmark in 1758, he was commissioned to sculpt a memorial monument to the long deceased King Christian VI by his widowed wife, Sophie Magdalene.
As a professor there, he introduced his Neoclassical theories to his students including the painter and architect Nikolaj Abraham Abildgaard who later became Director of the Academy and Bertel Thorvaldsen's instructor.
[13] Herman Wilhelm Bissen (1798–1868), initially a Neoclassicist, is remembered for the Realism of his monumental works celebrating Danish military victories while reflecting the nationalistic trend of the times.
Of particular note are the three bronze doors of Ribe Cathedral (1904), the equestrian statue of King Christian IX (1927) and the monument dedicated to her husband, The Young Man playing Pan-pipes on a Wingless Pegasus (1939), in Copenhagen.
[25] For a period, Denmark became identified with French-inspired Modernism with sculptors such as Jean Gauguin (1881–1961)and Adam Fischer (1888–1968) demonstrating a spirit of cultural optimism in contrast to the nations in conflict during the First World War.
Also in the 1950s, Svend Wiig Hansen (1922–1997) focused on the erotic power of the human body as in his cement Moder Jord (Mother Earth, 1953) in Herning Art Museum.
[40][41] An important and profuse contributor in the 1950s and 1960s was Jørgen Haugen Sørensen (born 1934) whose slaughtered animals allowed him to explore new avenues of abstract Expressionism, representing his views of the human condition in his own, often brutal style.
Robert Jacobsen (1912–1993), one of its early proponents, gained international recognition with his welded iron sculptures where lines and surfaces were enclosed in autonomous universes.
[45] In the 1960s, minimalistic tendencies in German and American art were behind the meta-objective approach of Willy Ørskov (1920-1990) who used everyday materials such as plastics and often inflated rubber to produce his works.
Players here included Henrik B. Andersen, Morten Stræde, Øivind Nygaard, Søren Jensen and Elisabeth Toubro who had all been influenced at the Art Academy by Willy Ørskov and Hein Heinsen.
Per Arnoldi, Per Kirkeby and Olafur Eliasson have all carried out large-scale decorative work in the new Copenhagen Opera House (2004)[50] while in 2003 Elisabeth Toubro completed her controversial Vanddragen (Water Dragon, 2003) in the centre of Aarhus.
[51] The recent Ørestad development has also seen the completion of monumental works including Per Kirkeby's Murstensskulptur (The Brick Wall, 2004), Hein Heinsen's bronze Den store udveksler (The Great Exchange, 2005) and Bjørn Nørgaard's colourful Kærlighedsøen (Lake of Love, 2010).
