Sara Rachel Juliane Kristoffersen (1937–2008) was a Greenlandic artist from the country's west coast. Her parents, Dorthe and Kristoffer Kristoffersen, taught her and her three siblings how to create small mythological figures in dark

soapstone Soapstone (also known as steatite or soaprock) is a talc-schist, which is a type of metamorphic rock. It is composed largely of the magnesium-rich mineral talc. It is produced by dynamothermal metamorphism and metasomatism, which occur in sub ...

from a local quarry. Her works were exhibited at the National Museum in Copenhagen and at the central library in

Gladsaxe Gladsaxe Municipality () is a municipality (Danish, '' kommune'') near Copenhagen in Region Hovedstaden on the island of Zealand (''Sjælland'') in eastern Denmark. The municipality covers an area of , and has a total population of 70,958 (2025). ...

in the early 1990s. Other can be seen today in

Nuuk Nuuk (; , formerly ) is the capital and most populous city of Greenland, an autonomous territory in the Kingdom of Denmark. Nuuk is the seat of government and the territory's largest cultural and economic center. It is also the seat of gove ...

's Galleri Enoksen.

Biography

Born in

on 18 December 1937, Sara Rachel Juliane Kristoffersen was the daughter of the hunter Kristoffer Mathæus Gert Kristoffersen (1902–1970) and Dorthea Rebekka Augusta née Jakobsen (1906–1976), later known as Dorthe Kristoffersen. (1943). Like her three siblings, Simon (1933–90), K'itura (1939) and Karl (1943), she was trained as a sculptor by her parents. She sculpted small figures in dark

from a neighbouring quarry, some quite realistic like the trapper dragging a heavy seal by a line strung over his shoulder which is in the collection of

National Museum of Denmark The National Museum of Denmark (Nationalmuseet) in Copenhagen is Denmark, Denmark's largest museum of cultural history, comprising the histories of Danish and foreign cultures, alike. The museum's main building is located a short distance from S ...

. Others, like the legendary qivittoq with an exceptionally large ear (1974), are more grotesque. It is believed the qivittoq needed good hearing as they wandered in the mountains, often communicating with the animals. The members of the family worked together as a kind of compact art colony, all creating small, rather lumpy figures. Sara Kristoffersen appears to be the one most interested in creating mysterious figures based on local legends. Other works by Kristoffersen were exhibited at the central library in Gladsaxe in 1993. They include a mother with a child and a man carrying another on his shoulders. Further examples of her work can be seen at the Gallery Enoksen in Nuuk. Sara Kristoffersen died in 2008.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kristoffersen, Sara 1937 births 2008 deaths Greenlandic artists Greenlandic women artists 20th-century Danish sculptors 21st-century Danish sculptors Danish women sculptors People from Nuuk 20th-century women sculptors 21st-century women sculptors