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Nótt í París

Nótt í París

Ásmundur Sveinsson


  • Year : 1928
  • Height : 29 cm
  • Width : cm
  • Category : Skúlptúr
  • Sub-category : Málmskúlptúr

The piece was made by Ásmundur in Paris during the winter of 1927, when he had a studio at 11 Rue de Constance in Montmartre. It depicts a man and a woman sitting on a bench. A great calm and balance is embodied in this forward-facing image based upon vertical and horizontal forces and a strong correlation between the position of the male and the female figure. The artist here emphasises the mass, along with clear, unambiguous lines that define the forms. In this work the artist has moved away from direct reference to nature, reconstructing his models with a subtle allusion to the formal language of Cubism. But instead of disrupting the forms as in Cubism, Ásmundur seeks by this formal simplification to bring out the weight and mass of the work. Such an objective would in due course come to be highly characteristic of Ásmundur’s art. This introspective, romantic sculpture, undoubtedly one of Ásmundur’s best-known works, reminds us of the theme of love in the artist’s work. Interviewed by editor Matthías Johannessen in Bókin um Ásmund, the artist remarked: “I don’t know what those people were always up to, on the benches. I started thinking about it. And the result was that sculpture. You can see, they’re not doing anything improper.”

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