News of Norway, issue 8,1998
Norwegian painter Vebjørn Sand has taken his share of blows from the art world. Vebjørn "The Hand" Sand, a name given to the outspoken artist for suggesting that his professors at the National Academy of Art in Oslo couldn't draw a hand if they tried, has a strong appetite for discussion about art and life in general. "It was just natural to speak out. I was sent to Prague during my period there. There was one professor [at the Academy] who helped me to get one year in Prague because they had more closer contact with tradition. It's natural when you are a young man and you want to grow. It's natural to speak up if something is stopping your growing, of course," Sand said.
His candor has stimulated minds in Norway and even stirred enough debate to cause the principal at the Academy to hire a professor to teach figurative painting. To his disdain, Sand is often compared to another eccentric and outspoken Norwegian painter, Odd Nerdrum. When Nerdrum was unanimously nominated for a professorship at the Norwegian Academy of Art, Sand and three other students wrote a letter denouncing the Academy's recommendation and questioning Nerdrum's teaching ability. Nerdrum withdrew his application amidst the controversy.
In thinking, clarity;
In feeling, inwardness;
In will, perseverance.
-Rudolf Steiner.
As a youth, Sand studied at a Steiner school in Oslo, where the curriculum was based on the teachings of Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), a philosopher who dedicated his life to finding the right form of ideas to express the spiritual world. At Steiner schools, like Waldorf schools in the U.S., teachers are encouraged to let students develop at their own individual pace, to avoid conformity and encourage individual thought through nurturing a child's imagination and internal desires.
Sand's work and ideas have been greatly influenced by family members, his instructors and great artisans of centuries past. Half joking and half serious, Sand admitted, "If I was a farmer's son, I would have become a farmer. In our family we work with art. My father was a painter, my grandfather was also a really good painter, except he wasn't a professional artist."
Vebjørn's father, Øivind, [who still paints by the way] studies and teaches the findings of 16th century astronomer Johannes Kepler.
Vebjørn also reflected on his studies under Walter Aas and Rolf Schonfeldt: "They were painters that were occupied with tradition, with the Renaissance and Baroque period. And they have really worked hard with it. So they just trained me in the old master's techniques." Finally, in all of his work Sand reveals an intense study of the work and attitudes of Leonardo da Vinci: a dramatic use of diffused light and shadow, attention to science and nature, and an eagerness to take on many mediums. "I think that when we were not trained in the classical technique and origins from the old masters or the artist himself and you're just splashed into the modern world, it's easy to get existential emptiness. And then you just do something. That's my feeling to be a person in the world. If I don't feel meaning of things, meaning of life and world, I get this existential vacuum," said Sand.
An artist is always alone-if he is an artist...the artist needs loneliness.
-Henry Miller,
"Tropic of Cancer"
When studying at the National Academy of Art in Oslo, he criticized students of modernism and their installation art. He felt like an outcast because everyone seemed to be more interested in what was deemed contemporary or fashionable art forms and less interested in studying the likes of Rembrandt or Michelangelo. Sand believes the classical training deficiency is specific to Norway and Europe. "It stems from the 60s generation who shunned tradition. It wasn't politically correct at the time," he mused. But something happened after he ventured on two different expeditions to Antarctica during the mid-90s.
"[Norway was] the first one to reach the South Pole in 1911 and so we have a long and proud history in expeditions and exploring. So it's natural for Norwegians to have an identity according to that. And when I was asked to join an expedition to Antarctica, I just felt that was a fantastic opportunity to go there," Sand said. He was asked to document the group's trip in his paintings. Not an easy task. "I had to prepare myself physically to go there, so I trained 6-9 months carrying heavy rucksacks and things like that, with stone. When you go there and you just meet the ice wall, the temperature wall, and you have to put on a heavy rucksack as well, you must prepare according to those things. So to be in Antarctica is a very physical thing. And I had to prepare paintings out of it to be very practical," Sand reflected. "On the first expedition I made around 30-40 sketches. And I had to have them in boxes [with dividers or braces, so they were in their own slots], so it could dry on there because it was so cold."
He did 40-50 sketches on his second expedition. "Everything has to be very practical because when you are sitting down, I must just open the box and palette is clear and everything must be... like when you are on the moon, you know, everything is really (well) prepared because you are struggling towards the cold all the time," he said.
Painting wasn't the only difficult task Sand took on. "It's a tradition in expedition history that those who have not small children back home are the first ones to cross the crevices," he said. "So I was unfortunately in that position." [Fortunately, he lived to tell about it.]
When he returned, Sand wanted to share his experience and paintings with the Norwegian public. But how could he really make them get the full effect of the South Pole?
He collaborated with John-Kristian Alsaker and Martine Rod, both participants in the implementation of Olympic ceremonies at Lillehammer in 1994, to design a winter installation made of ice and snow, creating an outdoor gallery for Sand's paintings.
The installation was called Trollslottet [Troll Castle] named after one of the ice formations Sand visited on his expedition. Trollslottet opened on Dec. 21, 1997, and sat high up on a hill overlooking Oslo.
"You know to be a painter is quite a lonely process. When I'm really occupied in periods with my paintings, I don't see so many people 'cause I want, you know, just to be close to the work. And I just meet my models, mostly," he said. Sand enjoyed the experience of working with over 100 people to put on an exhibit that drew over 100,000 visitors. "I don't compromise. It's a part of me to be introvert and it's a part of me to be extrovert. And after an extrovert period I want to be an introvert. I was really surprised that I became a project artist or became an installation artist," Sand said.
He got the idea for his next project [there would be three] when he saw a sketch in Stockholm of Leonardo da Vinci's Golden Horn Bridge. Da Vinci's bridge was intended to span an inlet in modern day Turkey, but the bridge was never built. Sand immediately fell in love with the beauty of the bridge's design and decided that the bridge must be built.
"I thought it was crazy that this bridge that is named 'bridge of all bridges,' 'queen of the bridges,' has never been built. So then I studied more about history according to the bridge and found some old manuscripts in books about the bridge and getting close with engineers who had also been working with it," Sand said. He approached the Norwegian Public Roads Administration: "When they saw this beauty and this grace and they were sitting in their offices with everyday problems, with cement bridges and highways and all those boring things they have done for so many years, and I came there and showed them something eternal, everyone wanted to join the Leonardo project and build this bridge, to take part in something that is historical actually, to build the 'queen of bridges.'"
Sand would like to see a copy of the bridge on every continent, although he will settle for two in Norway.
"So I wanted to make two bridges, one wooden bridge and one stone bridge. The reason I wanted to make a wooden bridge is that we have in Norway a tradition for picking up impulses from the continent and make that into our own tradition and we basically used wood when we built our country. You know for instance, the stave church, typically Norwegian, I don't know if you are familiar with the stave church, but they are actually a basilica, roman basilica transformed from stone to wood. And that was why I wanted to make Leonardo's stone bridge or stone project as a wooden construction as well," Sand said.
Whereas Leonardo's bridge was designed to be 240 meters long, Sand's version will be 65 meters and built in the township of Ås.
The second bridge is to be built of stone like the original da Vinci design, using the same granite Gustav Vigeland used to make the sculptures resting in the Vigeland Sculpture Park at Frogner, in Oslo. If built, the bridge will reside at the Telenor complex at Fornebu, Norway's old international airport for Oslo. However, plans for the stone bridge have not yet been finalized because it will cost significantly more than the wooden bridge.
"It's also my inner will to stand in tradition, but if you are going to tell about tradition you have to renew it or tell it in new ways," said Sand in response to a question about the apparent conflict in his strong dedication to tradition, while at the same time presenting his art in extremely futuristic exhibits.
His third project is a good example of how the young artist can revive Renaissance thought and translate complex ideas into something for the masses. Sand is building a star based on Johannes Kepler's (n. 1571) study of geometric shapes called the "Platonic bodies" (the tetrahedron, the cube, the dodecaherdron, the octonary solid, and the icosahedron).
Sand's star stems from the icosahedron, which will form the core structure of the star. The final product will have twenty faces, thirty edges, twelve corners, be lit from the inside, and rest permanently at the Gardermoen Industrial Park, adjacent to the Gardermoen Airport near Oslo.
What's most amazing about this exhibit, once again, is how Sand decided to present his work to the public. On New Years Eve of the new Millennium, Sand hopes to send a lighter duplicate of his star floating over the city of Oslo in the direction of Gardermoen for all to see.
The meaning of art is that you get things to grow in your soul, that your
personality can be strong, that your mental and
spiritual immune system can be strong.
-Vebjørn Sand
Currently, all three projects are displayed through photographs, paintings, drawings, and sculptures at the American Institute of Architects Gallery in Washington, D.C. The curator of the American exhibition is Melinda Iverson, an artist and film producer, who became familiar with Sand's work two years ago and felt he should be shown to American audiences that she feels are not sufficiently aware of contemporary Norwegian culture. After the exhibit travels to several additional U.S. cities, Sand will return to the drawing board. Next on the agenda: Sand hopes to develop a workshop in Oslo where he can work together with other artists-painters, sculptors, authors, musicians-in nature. "That's what I want to use my money on," Sand said. "It's in groups that things grow faster. I figured that out when working on these projects. Ideas coming into a group, the synergy effect the energy started to speak up, you and the others can reach further."
Sand seems to have come a long way since his days at the Academy. "You know the most important thing in life is the meeting between people. That's the spirit in all art," Sand said.
Exhibit schedule
Nov. 12-Jan. 8, 1999
American Institute of Architects Gallery
1735 New York Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20006-5292
Ph.: (202) 626-7372
Jan. 22-Feb. 28, 1999
MCAD Gallery
Minneapolis College of Art and Design
2501 Stevens South
Minneapolis, MN 55404
Ph.: (612) 874-3785
March 10-April 16, 1999
The Chicago Athenaeum
6 North Michigan Avenue
Chicago, IL 60002
Ph.: (312) 251-0175
April 28-May 30, 1999
The SoMar Gallery
934 Brannan Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
Ph.: (415) 552-2131
June 10 - July 29, 1999
TBA