Eric Grate
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"Navigare Necesse Est"
Signed Eric Grate and numbered 2/6. Foundry marks H Bergman cire perdue. Bronze, dark patina, height 36 cm. Mounted on granite base.
Provenance
Private collection, Stockholm.
Subsequently by inheritance.
More information
"Navigare Necesse Est", att segla är nödvändigt, tillkom 1965 då Eric Grate befann sig i Sverige. Redan på 1930-talet hade han gjort en version i hamrad koppar som upplevdes som ett segel eller som ett stort, vaksamt huvud som vände sig i vinden. I den nya versionen 1965 finns samma känsla kvar, men den är också den första skulpturen i raden av former inspirerade av formrikedomen hos benen i en gäddas huvud. Eric Grate blev på 1960-talet stimulerad från fiskarnas benrester till en arkitektoniskt och mänskligt associativ formvärld av grymma skulpturala gestalter i släkt med fetischer och idoler, skapade direkt ur själva naturen.Skulpturen blev mycket populär då man avtäckte den i stort format 1971 i Kalmar. Styrkan och farten i seglandet och sammanhanget mellan vind och framrusande rörelse uppskattades av den stora publiken och "Navigare necesse est" hör till Eric Grates mest berömda och lovordade skulpturer.
Artist
Eric Grates idiosyncratic world of images always invites exploration and wandering within the imagination. While he respects the the earths natural forms, he sometimes "plays with god", manipulating and playing with nature to create new surprising objects which we recognise but simultaneously dont recall. He borrows fragments from nature and uses his endless imagination to create art in his unique way. His visual language emualtes an aura of abstract surrealism derived from "object trouvés". Grate was inspired by natures radiance and its different forms. Stones, roots, insects, bones, all were transformed into sculptures, particularly the insect world was a source of great inspiration for Grates. During the 1960s, beach, hull, and bones were particularly the starting points for his sculptures. He created numerous official artworks.
Grate began his academic trips after finishing his studies at Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts from 1979-20, where he travelled to Italy and Greece, filling his sketchbooks with studies of insects, plants, unique architecture, sculpture, and ceramics. He spent a longer period between 1924 and 1933 in Paris, a formative period where he was one of the few Swedish artists who was associated with the avante garde; we got in contact with none other than the surrealists Jean Arp, Paul Eluard, and Tristan Tzara. Grate is seen by many as one of Sweden's most influential sculptors during the 1900s.
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