Einar Utzon-Frank

The mobile, weather-forecasting sculpture The Weather Girls at the City Hall Square in Copenhagen

Aphrodite at the Arboretum Zürich in Switzerland^[1]

Aksel (Axel) Einar (Ejnar) Utzon-Frank (30 March 1888 – 15 July 1955) was a Danish sculptor and professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. During his lifetime, he produced a large number of sculptures, many of which stand as public monuments. He was the uncle of Pritzker Prize-winning architect Jørn Utzon.

Career

Einar Utzon-Frank was born in the Frederiksberg district of Copenhagen in 1888,^[2] the son of Jens Christian Frank and Anna Cathrine Utzon.^[3]

Utzon-Frank began his artistic life as a painter but changed direction to become a sculptor.^[4] He was admitted to the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in 1906,^[5] where he became a close friend of the somewhat older Kai Nielsen. However, the two friends followed diverging paths through their creative careers, with Nielsen following a lush modernism in contrast to Utzon-Frank's clear, cool classical style which follows the tradition of Bertel Thorvaldsen.^[6]

From 1912 to 1913 Utzen-Frank travelled around Europe, visiting Berlin, Dresden, Munich, Florence, Rome, Naples, Paestum, Paris and later Italy, Greece and England,^[7] and many of the classical influences from his travels are evident in his work.

Academia

In 1918 at the age of 30, he was appointed a professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Art in Copenhagen, a post in which he remained until 1955.^[4] In his teaching, he laid emphasis on solid craftsmanship skills. He was a teacher and educator of great importance and came to dominate several generations of sculptors, including Henry Heerup, Sigrid Lütken, Janus Kamban, Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen, Gestur Þorgrímsson^[8] and Douglas Bisset.^[9]

Private life

He married Gerda Harriet Margrete Christensen on 4 December 1908.^[6] Their daughter Grete Utzon Frank was born on 8 February 1909 in Copenhagen, and she married painter and author William Flemming Bergsøe on 21 March 1930.^[10]

Works

His best-known works include:^[4]

• Knælende Aphrodite (1916)
• Atalante (1919)
• Slangedræber, the Police Headquarters, Copenhagen (1924)
• Beatrice as poesiens genius, Dantesøjlen, Copenhagen (1924), sold in 2003 for 28,000 DKK^[11]
• Sarkofag for Frederik VIII, Roskilde Cathedral, Roskilde, Denmark
• Hamlet Memorial Grave, Coventry, England (192)
• Erik of Pomerania (1926)
• Youth, Enghaveparken, Copenhagen (1933)
• The Weather Girls, Richshuset, Copenhagen (1936)
• Knud the Holy, Odense, Denmark 1944)
• Christian X (Equestrian statue), Sankt Annæ Plads, Copenhagen (1954)
• Thorvaldsen (1953)

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Einar Utzon-Frank.

• Art of Denmark

References