Ásmundur Sveinsson (20 May 1893 – 9 December 1982) was an Icelandic sculptor.

Early years

Ásmundur Sveinsson was born in Kolsstadir in West Iceland on 20 May 1893. In 1915 he moved to

Reykjavík Reykjavík ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Iceland. It is located in southwestern Iceland, on the southern shore of Faxaflói bay. Its latitude is 64°08' N, making it the world's northernmost capital of a sovereign state. With a po ...

where he enrolled in the Technical College of Iceland and apprenticed with sculptor

Ríkarður Jónsson Ríkarður Jónsson (20 September 1888 – 17 January 1977) was an Icelandic sculptor. Early training Ríkarður was born in the Icelandic east coast village of Djúpivogur. His mother was Ólöf Finnsdóttir and his father was Jón Þóra ...

for four years. In 1919 he relocated to

Copenhagen, Denmark Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

, and from there to

Stockholm, Sweden Stockholm () is the capital and largest city of Sweden as well as the largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people live in the municipality, with 1.6 million in the urban area, and 2.4 million in the metropoli ...

, where he enrolled in the Academy of Fine Arts where he remained for six years, much of it spent studying with sculptor

Carl Milles Carl Milles (; 23 June 1875 – 19 September 1955) was a Swedish sculptor. He was married to artist Olga Milles (née Granner) and brother to Ruth Milles and half-brother to the architect Evert Milles. Carl Milles sculpted the Gustaf Vasa statu ...

. In 1924 he married sculptor Gunnfríður Jónsdóttir, whom he later divorced. After graduating from the Academy, Ásmundur moved to

Paris, France Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

where he continued his study, here under the sculptor

Charles Despiau Charles Despiau (November 4, 1874 – October 28, 1946) was a French sculptor. Early life Charles-Albert Despiau was born at Mont-de-Marsan, Landes and attended first the École des Arts Décoratifs and later the École nationale supérieure de ...

Work

Ásmundur returned to Iceland in 1929 and began producing a series of abstracted figurative works. His themes were often men and women at work and included such pieces as, ''The Blacksmith'', ''The Washer Women'' and ''The Water Carrier''. During the 1940s Ásmundur's work moved even farther away from the human and animal form that had been his mainstay until then and by the 1950s he was producing work that was almost entirely abstract. Like many Icelandic artists, he drew upon the traditions of his native country when seeking subjects to inspire him. These include ''Trollwoman'', (1948), ''Head Ransom'', (1948), based on a poem that

Egil Skallagrimsson Egil or Egill is a masculine given name derived from Old Norse. It may refer to: Characters * Egil (Hymiskvida), farmer in the poem ''Hymiskvida'' * Egil, brother of Volund, hero of Völundarkviða and the Thidreks saga * Egil One-Hand, hero from ...

composed to save his own head and ''bleep-Ride'', (1944) taken from the

Prose Edda The ''Prose Edda'', also known as the ''Younger Edda'', ''Snorri's Edda'' ( is, Snorra Edda) or, historically, simply as ''Edda'', is an Old Norse textbook written in Iceland during the early 13th century. The work is often assumed to have been t ...

Snorri Sturlusson Snorri Sturluson ( ; ; 1179 – 22 September 1241) was an Icelandic historian, poet, and politician. He was elected twice as lawspeaker of the Icelandic parliament, the Althing. He is commonly thought to have authored or compiled portions of the ...

. His ''Sæmundur and the Seal'', also in this vein, is situated in front of the main building of the

University of Iceland The University of Iceland ( is, Háskóli Íslands ) is a public research university in Reykjavík, Iceland and the country's oldest and largest institution of higher education. Founded in 1911, it has grown steadily from a small civil servants' s ...

in Reykjavík. Generally, the artist believed in placing works of art not only in the hands of a small elite, but also in making them accessible to the public. Other works of Ásmundur Sveinsson are to be found on the hill Öskjuhlíð near Perlan in Reykjavík or at the farm of

Borg á Mýrum Borg á Mýrum () is a settlement due west of Borgarnes township in Iceland. Its recorded history reaches back to the settlement of Iceland. One of the country's original settlers was Skallagrímur Kveldúlfsson (''Skalla-Grímr''), who claimed th ...

near

Borgarnes Borgarnes () is a town located on a peninsula at the shore of Borgarfjörður in Iceland and is the largest town in the Borgarbyggð municipality with a population of about 3800 residents. It is a main junction in Iceland and the gateway to the S ...

. The abstract sculpture here represents the saga hero Egill having his dead son in his arms. The title Sonartorrek is referring to a poem which Egill Skallagrimsson wrote about this scene. Ásmundur died in Reykjavík on 9 December 1982. In 2015, his statue of poet

Einar Benediktsson Einar Benediktsson, often referred to as Einar Ben (31 October 1864 – 12 January 1940) was an Icelandic poet and lawyer. Einar Benediktsson's poetry was a significant contribution to the nationalistic revival which led to Iceland's independenc ...

was moved to a spot near

Höfði Höfði () is a house in Reykjavík, Iceland, best known as the location for the 1986 Reykjavík Summit meeting of President Ronald Reagan of the United States and General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev of the Soviet Union. This meeting was an imp ...

house in Reykjavik, where the poet had lived.

Ásmundarsafn

The former house of the artist in Laugardalur, Reykjavík, has been installed as a museum, called Ásmundarsafn. The house was constructed in the 1930s, based on designs drawn by the artist who was a fan of the

Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 200 ...

style. The house is slightly reminiscent of

Le Corbusier Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , , ), was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was ...

and his chapel of Ronchamp. The sculpture garden nearby is open to public.

External links

* http://artmuseum.is/asmundarsafn * http://www.borgarfjordur.com/pages/p7.html {{DEFAULTSORT:Sveinsson, Asmundur Icelandic sculptors 1893 births 1982 deaths Asmundur Sveinsson 20th-century sculptors

Early years

Work

Ásmundarsafn

See also

External links