The White Falcon - 05.02.1971, Blaðsíða 3

February 5, 1971
THE WHITE FALCON
Page 5
Sculpture and Asmundur Sveinsson
by OT3
Asmundur Sveinsson is perhaps
the culmination of myth, and if
It were at all possible to define
Ls role in this perimeter, it
puld undoubtedly be in the hu-
oresque. Asmundur's passage from
the naturalism of his youth to
the abstract of today has left in
its wake an interpretation far
from the norm in mythological
classicism.
Until the turn of the 20th cen-
tury, classicism was the founda-
tion of nearly all Western art.
The familiarity with Greek and
Roman culture was considered a
necessity for the formulation of
any aesthetic values in the vis-
ual arts. More recently, clas-
sicism is coming under attack by
those who consider the homage of
Roman and Greek culture as being
a prejudice and an unwillingness
of the Western world to expand
further than its own nose.
Although Sveinsson is not se-
verely classicist in nature, he
upholds its preservation as a
level of education for any as-
piring artist.
As he put it, "The more you know
of the traditions of the really
artistically and culturally ad-
vanced nations, the better you're
off. This does not mean imitating.
The classicists are important be-
cause one must have a basic know-
ledge of the past in order to
place a proper definition on the
f resent. However, if you can't
brk for the present, you're not
^-eating art."
Sveinsson points to Picasso as
one who has had a classical back-
ground.
Ken Burrows
"Anybody that has been deeply
involved in the classics," he
said, "is always thereafter work-
ing to a standard. Picasso was
steeped in it from birth. He
never does a bad thing, no matter
what style, and anybody versed in
the classics can never do any-
thing cheap."
With the advent of Fauvism, a
new energy emerged in Western art.
In the progression that followed,
social awareness became acute, as
is evidenced by many of today's
paintings and sculptures, yet
Sveinsson maintains that it has
always been there.
He said, "All art is socially
relevant. It was Picasso who
said 'It is just as revolutionary
to paint an apple as a gun.' Art
elevates man; it has always been
the artist that brings progress to
the world, never the politician.
The artist, in a broad sense, has
always been concerned with the hu-
man condition. All art has been
socially conscious; it's just
that some is made more obvious."
"Every artist should learn the
nude, in the naturalistic
sense, but there is too much
happening around tostop there."
Sveinsson's latter years have
been devoted mainly to work in the
abstract. He has maintained a
theory that initially there was
figurative art, and with the ad-
vent of photography, visual arts
are breaking away from the figur-
ative in an effort to identify
with the present. He does not
feel that it is an obscure form
of expression.
"The more you become involved
in an abstract world, the more
simple forms begin to have per-
sonalities," he related. "A basic
misconception about artis that it
should tell a story, like a book.
It should not. It has been treat-
ed like literature. When I go to
the museum and can understand a
piece of work, I am finished with
it. It is those which I cannot
understand that contribute to my
awareness and scope of the world."
At this point he referenced
Egyptian art; its mystic incli-
nations still seem mysterious to
him.
For the past few decades, Par-
is has been the center of art.
It was there Asmundur studied
under the disciples of Rodin,
Despiau and Bourdelles. There,
as well as in Iceland, he is often
approached with the question of
his use of fantasy in his work.
"My fantasy? Why, that's the
way the country is. It is unpre-
dictable and lends to fantasy.
Volcanoes, hot water spewing from
the earth, glaciers."
Iceland is, in fact, a Tolkien
land,( for nothing is permanent,
and Asmundur Sveinsson has cap-
tured,, in both myth and structure,
more vhan most men.