Regjeringskvartalet Nygaardsvolds plass Oslo 18jun2005

Carl Nesjar (né Carlsen; 6 July 1920 – 23 May 2015) was a Norwegian painter, sculptor and graphic artist. He is best known for his collaborations with

Pablo Picasso Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, Ceramic art, ceramicist, and Scenic ...

; serving for nearly twenty years as Picasso's chosen fabricator — the artist who turned Picasso's drawings and scale models into large public sculptures. One such work was

Picasso's Regjeringskvartalet murals Picasso's Regjeringskvartalet murals are a series of murals designed by the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso in the late 1950s and the early 1970s. He designed five murals (''The Beach'', ''The Seagull'', ''Satyr and Faun'' and two versions of ''Th ...

which are located in

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

, the city where Nesjar lived for most of his life. He is also known for his series of "Ice Fountains” which can be found in cities around the world.

Life and career

Born Carl Carlsen in

Larvik Larvik () is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestfold county, Norway. It is located in the Traditional districts of Norway, traditional district of Vestfold. The administrative centre of the municipality is the Larvik (town) ...

, Norway, Nesjar was raised in Southern Norway and in the

Bay Ridge Bay Ridge is a neighborhood in the southwest corner of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It is bounded by Sunset Park to the north, Dyker Heights to the east, the Narrows and the Belt Parkway to the west, and Fort Hamilton Army Base an ...

neighborhood of

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

, New York, United States. He studied art at the

Pratt Institute Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York. It has an additional campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The institute was founded in 18 ...

;

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

; and in Oslo and Paris. Towards the beginning of his career he assumed the name 'Nesjar', the Norse word for the coastal area around Larvik. Nesjar collaborated with architect

Erling Viksjø Erling Viksjø (4 July 1910 – 2 December 1971) was a Norwegian architect. Viksjø was an early exponent of architectural modernism. He was also noted for his use of textured concrete as a building material in a number of his designs. ...

on a particular concrete sculpting method called

Betograve ''Betograve'' is a type of concrete sculpting. A document published by the Nasher Sculpture Center says that betograve "...involves first pouring concrete into a form tightly packed with gravel, and, once set, precisely sand-blasting the surface of ...

. The introduction of this technique to Picasso led to a lasting collaboration between the two, starting with the realization of a version of the sculpture ''Tête de femme'' in gravel and concrete in 1958. Over the next 15 years Nesjar and Picasso created more than 30 sculptures together. Examples of their work can be found on the campuses of

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

and the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

, as well as in public spaces in Norway, France, Spain and Israel among other nations. Pablo Picasso created three concrete sculptures titled:

Figure découpée Figure découpée or L'oiseau (1963, 1964, 1965) is an abstract sculpture by Pablo Picasso: there are a total of three Figure découpée sculptures. There is one located in Vondelpark NL, another on the campus of Massachusetts Institute of Techn ...

. Picasso learned the art process from Nesjar. First a wooden frame was constructed and filled with dark rock materials and then covered with concrete. The surface of the concrete was then sandblasted following a template and the blasted away material revealed the dark material in the lines on the surface. Nesjar died in Oslo on 23 May 2015 at the age of 94.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nesjar, Carl 1920 births 2015 deaths People from Larvik Norwegian artists Norwegian male artists

Life and career

See also

References