Unique work by Gunnar Westman (1915-1985) Made in bronze. 34x25x15cm. 17kg.

Sold
Item number: 541938

Description: Unique work by Gunnar Westman (1915-1985) Made in bronze. 34x25x15cm. 17kg. Given as a gift to his neighbor. Never been in the shop before. Gunnar Westman, Gunnar Millet Westman, 11.2.1915-11.4.1985, sculptor. Gunnar Westman grew up in an artistic environment, his father was, among other things, co-founder of the association Koloristerne 1925. Gunnar Westman himself was originally trained as a silversmith with A. Dragsted, but in 1938 was admitted to the academy's sculpture school with professor E. Utzon-Frank, where he attended until 1942. However, the most significant artistic impact came from other sources. Already in the years before the academy, Gunnar Westman had spent a few years in Sweden where he lived by working as a blacksmith. Here the Swedish folk art made a deep impression on him and he was particularly taken by D�derhultarn's wooden figures. In Gunnar Westman's first works from the late 1930s, i.a. Flølespilleren, 1937 and Sick Visit, 1939, one senses a clear influence from the Swede's folk, warm storytelling style, which is so far from Utzon-Frank's classicist-aestheticizing sculpture concepts. During the war he returned to Sweden as a refugee. Astrid Noack had arranged for Gunnar Westman and his wife to borrow the Swedish sculptor Bror Hjorth's old studio outside Uppsala. The encounter with Bror Hjorth's art was a great experience for Gunnar Westman and he saw in this a confirmation of the naturalistic narrative form of expression that had always been his starting point. The works he carried out in Sweden and in the time after his return to Denmark also show a clear influence from Hjorth's art, i.a. the relief Child in the window, 1947. Gunnar Westman is represented by works at the Statens museum for art and at the museums in �benr� and Horsens. He made his debut in 1935 at Den fries' spring exhibition, was a guest at Grönningen 1945, member 1950, member of Corner 1966-85. Retrospective exhibition 1962 at the Art Association, received the Eckersberg Medal in 1967 and the Thor