Eric Grate
Covered by droit de suite
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"Mediterranean idols"
Signed Eric Grate and HC1. Foundery H. Bergman, Cire perdue. The motif conceived 1931-32. Bronze, dark patina. Height 35 cm (including stone base 37 cm).
Provenance
Bought in June 1988 at Gallery Modern, Stockholm, Sweden.
Exhibitions
Kunstnernes hus, Oslo, "Eric Grate", 7-29 May 1960. Another copy exhibited as catalogue no 24.
Musée National D'art Moderna, Paris , "Eric Grate, sculpteur Suédois", 22 March - 15 April 1963. Another copy exhibited as catalogue no 20.
Royal Academy of Fine arts, Stockholm, "Eric Grate skulpturer", March 1965. Another copy exhibited as catalogue no 7.
Liljevalchs, "Eric Grate sex decennier 1916-1976", 13 May - 1 August 1976. Another copy exhibited as catalogue no 73 (in bronze) and catalogue no 207 (in terracotta and 113 cm).
Literature
Ed. Ragnar von Holten,"En bok om Eric Grate", 1963. The motif described at p. 59, compare ill. in terracotta at p. 65.
Pontus Grate and Ragnar von Holten, "Eric Grate", SAK 1978. The motif described at p. 55, compare ill. at p. 55.
More information
Known number of cast is 4+HC.
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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