"Relieffigur"
Signed CB. Executed 1927. Polished bronze against dark patinated background 36 x 18 cm.
Nordén Auktioner, Stockholm, 20 November 1997, catalog no. 235.
Torvald Berg, "Christian", cat no C11, p. 184, another example illustrated p. 185.
Sven Sandström, "Christian Berg", cat no 10, another example illustrated illustrated p. 54.
Christian Berg was a Swedish sculptor. He commenced his career as a naturalistic animal painter and he up until 1926 retained his artistry solely to painting. He encountered post-cubism whilst in Paris, which quickly became his artistic language. The road to sculpting he found one day when, with the help of clay, solved a problem with the lines of a drawn torso. Berg’s first sculpture, Torso 1926, became the starting point to his most intensive and active period of 1926-30. He created a collection of post-cubist sculptures and many torsos in various stages of development. He primarily worked with clearly defined concave and convex forms, allowing light to play on alternating glossy and matte surfaces. With the exception of his numerous stylised portrait sculptures ecclesiastical decorations, Berg remained loyal to abstract sculptures during the entirety of his artistic career.
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