In memory of my beloved father; Edor November 3, 2011
Posted by conedo in Art, Contemplations, Uncategorized.Tags: 1924, 2009, All Saints Day, Art, beloved, birch, Carina Pettersson, carpenter, children, Conny Edorsson, diseases, Edor, Edorsson, facebook, family, Father, fathers day, Funbo, gratitude, Harriet, Harriet Jansson, hearts, human, human beings, Inger Palm, lawn, Lennart Bergström, life, live, memory, November, Paradise, sacrifice, shadow, spirit, struggle, summer house, Sweden, thank you, Uppland, Uppsala
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Today two years ago, on November 3rd 2009, my beloved father Edor closed his eyes, stopped breathing and finally found his peace after a long struggle with diseases that slowly by slowly had weakened him. However, his spirit is constantly present in his family’s and friends’ minds and hearts.
Edor Jansson 1924-2009
We all feel humble gratitude to what he accomplished during his almost 85 years of walking among us in this world. His caring and devoted deeds formed all of us who had the opportunity to be close to him, and what he gave to us still lives on in our own struggle to be good fellow human beings.
He was born a stormy winter night on the kitchen table in his family’s home, located in the northern region of Uppland in Sweden; shortly before Christmas (December 22nd) 1924. Edor was one of 11 children in his family. He got trained as a carpenter and devoted his entire life to this profession. When he was not constructing buildings, he carved beautiful objects of art, now decorating several homes in Sweden and even in USA.
Mirror in wood and gold leaf made by my father
Examples of wood carvings by Edor Jansson
For many many years, he also eagerly created a little paradise for himself and his family in the outskirts of the city Uppsala, in Funbo. Here he bought a piece of forest land which he cleared and then built a summer-house. I am very proud to now be the owner of this little paradise created by my father’s hands, as well as I proudly changed my surname to “the son of Edor”; Edorsson.
The summer-house in Funbo, Edor’s life-long project that started in 1960
https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Edorssons-summer-house/212102505471841?sk=info
Under the old birch tree on the lawn at his paradise in Funbo, Edor up until his last summer enjoyed calm rests in the shadow this tree is creating
Together with his wife Harriet, he raised four children (three of his own and one adopted oldest son who has already very sadly left this world).
Edor’s children photographed in 1957. From left to right: Carina, Lennart and Inger with the newborn Conny in Lennart’s arms
Edor, you are remembered, missed and loved by so many. We carry your love for us deep in our hearts. Your spirit is within us, carry us and comfort us. You died just before Father’s Day and All Saint’s Day – and every year at this time on those holiday’s, our minds and thoughts becomes even stronger focused on you and the things you left behind for us to enjoy.
Thank you Edor for being my father, raising me and my sisters to the persons we are today and that your hard sacrificing life-long work, based on your love and care for your family, affect us as long as we live.
Edor and Harriet in September 2009
About an artwork and its creator, part 3 September 20, 2011
Posted by conedo in About an artwork..., Art.Tags: Académie de la Grande Chaumière, Art, Art Deco, artwork, cubism, Cuernavaca, girl with gloves, jeune fillet en vert, Kizette, Kuffner, Maria Gorska, Mexico, Montparnasse, Paris, Polish, portrait, Tadeusz Lampicka, Tamara de Lampicka, Warsaw, young woman in a green
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Portrait of a Young Woman in a Green Dress by Tamara de Lempicka
The Polish artist Tamara de Lempicka (birth name Maria Górska), born in May 16th 1898, created her own style in art often called “soft cubism” or “synthetic cubism. She was raised in a wealthy and prominent lawyer family in Warsaw and got her education in a boarding school in Lausanne, Switzerland. At the age of 14 when her parents divorced, Maria moved to live with her rich Aunt Stefa in St. Petersburg, Russia. Here she started to study art at the Academy of Art.
“Portrait of a Young Girl in a Green Dress” (also known as “Jeune Fille en Vert”, “Young Girl With Gloves” or “Girl in Green With Gloves”; painted by Tamara de Lampicka 1930, oil on plywood. Size: 45,5 x 61,5 cm
In 1916, when Maria was 18 years old, she married the lawyer Tadeusz Lempicki, who the year after (during the Russian Revolution) got arrested by the Bolsheviks. With the help of the Swedish Consul, she managed to get her husband released and they left Russia for initially Copenhagen, Denmark, then London, England to finally settle down in Paris, France. In Paris Maria changed her name to Tamara and after giving birth to a daughter Kizette, she continued to develop her art studies at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Montparnasse.
Tamara de Lempicka
She quickly became the most fashionable portrait painter of her generation and a leading representative within the Art Deco
genre. During the 1920s she was part of the bohemian life in Paris and made several scandals with her affairs with both men and women. In 1928 Tamara and Tadeusz divorced. In 1933 she married her lover, Baron Kuffner who brought her back from the bohemian life to the high society again. In 1939, shortly after the outbreak of the Second World War, the couple relocated to the United States.
Tamara de Lempicka
When her husband Baron Kuffner died in 1962, and after criticized and less successful exhibitions the same year, she stopped to show her works to the public. She sold most of her belongings, made 3 around-the-world-cruises by ship and moved to Houston, Texas to be with her daughter Kizette and her family.
In 1978 Tamara moved to Cuernavaca in Mexico where she 2 years later died on March 18, 1980. By then, her early Art Deco paintings had regained its enormous popularity among new generations of art lovers.
The original painting can be seen in the Musée National d’Art Moderne in Paris, France.
About an artwork and its creator, part 2 August 3, 2011
Posted by conedo in About an artwork..., Art.Tags: Art, artwork, Edvard Bergh, Ekholmsnäs, Göteborgs Konstmuseum, Gothenburg Art Museum, Karin Pyk, landscape painting, Lidingö, Manet, Monet, National Museum, Nationalmuseum, Nordic, Nordic light, Nordic summer's evening, nordisk sommarkväll, Prince Eugen, Richard Bergh, sexual tension, sommarkväll, Stockholm, Swedish romantic nationalism
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Nordic summer´s evening (Nordisk sommarkväll) by Richard Bergh
The Stockholm born Swedish painter Richard Bergh, used 2 famous Swedes as models for his “Nordic summer’s evening”, painted at the turn of the last century. The man is the member of the Swedish Royal family; Prince Eugen (he was also a famous painter) and the woman is the singer Karin Pyk. This painting was not supposed to be solemnly portraits , but an artwork mediating a mood to the beholders. Bergh once said “Art means to feel.”
Nordic summer’s evening; original title in Swedish: Nordisk sommarkväll; by Richard Bergh. Painted 1899 – 1900, oil on canvas. Size: 170 x 223,5 cm
The painter
Born December 28th 1858 in Stockholm, Sweden, died at the age of 60, on January 29th 1919. As a son of the landscape painter Edvard Bergh, Richard was trained at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts in Stockholm and later also in Paris, France. Besides being a painter, Richard Bergh also was a writer of art theory and author of books on cultural politics. He was secretary of the Swedish Association for Artists and a teacher in the Association’s art schools. In the 1890’s he established an art school of his own at his atelier, and in the year 1915 he became director of the National Museum (Nationalmuseum) in Stockholm, Sweden; thus contributing to increase the museum’s collection of early modernists.
Richard Bergh made several famous portraits in his early career, e.g. of the Swedish authors August Strindberg and Gustaf Fröding. Bergh’s landscape paintings played an important role in the development of Swedish romantic nationalism and he was inspired by French painters like Édouard Manet and Claude Monet.
Richard Bergh photographed in 1904
The painting
“Nordic summer’s evening” has become a symbolic painting for the so called “Nordic light” paintings, a theme for many Scandinavian painters. It is seen as a romantic mood painting with some symbolism embedded in it. The interpretations are many; e.g. the sexual tension between a man and a woman, and the human connection to nature. The painting depicts the view from the balcony on “Ekholmsnäs”, on the island of Lidingö in Stockholm. The two models were painted on different occasions; Prince Eugen was painted there on the balcony, while the singer Karin Pyk was painted in Assissi, Italy.
The original painting can be seen in the Gothenburg Art Museum (Göteborgs Konstmuseum), Sweden.
Like talking to a rabbit… May 6, 2010
Posted by conedo in Art.Tags: Art, beauty, Benjamin Franklin, Liljeholmskajen, Marlitt Almodovar, sculptures, Shakespeare, Stockholm
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The area along the lake Mälaren’s shores, where the lake meets the Baltic Sea in Stockholm, is constantly being exploited. New residences and offices are being constructed in a rapid speed. Along with the new buildings, also art is accompanying.
By the new residence and office area “Liljeholmskajen”, where my office is situated, this is indeed a fact. These sculptures can be seen in the closest vicinity.
The opinion of the public is, as always when it comes to “judging” art, very shifting.
Some say “beautiful”, others say “trash” – some say “hmmm….” others say “nice”.
Some say “interesting”, some say “terrible” and some pass by without even noticing…
The saying: “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder” first appeared in the 3rd century BC in Greece.
William Shakespeare wrote in 1588: “Beauty is bought by judgement of the eye,
Not utter’d by base sale of chapmen’s tongues.”
Benjamin Franklin wrote in 1741: “Beauty, like supreme dominion,
Is but supported by opinion.”
No matter what we see, what we feel and what we think about artistic work that appear in front of our eyes, we can be sure that this is not an experience shared by everyone.
And when it comes to explaining what we see, what we feel and what we think about art, we can be sure that all people will – if at all listening, or interested in your view – not understand or share the same experience as you.
A friend of mine, the painter Marlitt Almodovar from Mexico City, describes this in a very appealing, accurate and vivid way:
“To desribe art, is like talking to a rabbit, that despite its long ears, is dead”
Who can not but agree with this striking description?
Sweden’s smallest public sculpture April 28, 2010
Posted by conedo in Art.Tags: Art, Gamla stan, moon, sculpture, Stockholm, Sweden
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I came across what is said to be one of the most popular, but even smallest public sculpture in Sweden. It can be found in a somewhat hidden yard in “Gamla Stan” (Old Town) in Stockholm, called “Bollhustäppan.”
The sculpture is called “Pojke som tittar på månen” (A Boy Looking at the Moon) by the Swedish sculptor Liss Eriksson in 1967.
The sculpture is based on one of the artist’s childhood memories. When he couldn’t sleep, he sat curled up in bed and looked out the window at the moon. The sculpture design language is stylized. The warmth of expression contrasts the form’s reservation.
The little boy seems to bring tenderness feelings to the viewer. People have knitted scarves and hats for the sculpture and the head starts to become shiny by all well-meaning claps from the viewers!
Talking about the moon; on my way home to Stockholm from Funbo (my summer-house) this past weekend, there was a beautiful “daylight moonshine.”
I found myself , as the boy in the sculpture, looking at the moon – but in broad daylight 🙂 This is how it looked like:
Photos by Conny Edorsson
I find it rather amazing – standing in the sunshine, looking at the shining moon at the same time 🙂
Some Sculptures in Uppsala April 24, 2010
Posted by conedo in Art.Tags: Art, Bror Hjort, sculpture, Uppsala
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This morning I went to my old hometown Uppsala, to spend the day at my summer-house in Funbo, close by. As I wrote in my very first blog a couple of weeks ago, Uppsala has a new Traveler’s Centre. Now the new sculptures there have been uncovered. I took these pictures, waiting for the bus:
In the same area, outside the old railway station, stands the sculpture by the Uppsala based artist Bror Hjort called “Näckens polska” (dance of the Neck – Water spirit). I took these pictures of what is regarded as the most famous imaging of this fairytale character “Näcken” here in Sweden:
A few hundred meters away, this sculpture can be found outside the entrance to “Samariterhemmet” (The home of the Samaritans) – a small hospital in the city centre of Uppsala:
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