Bjørn Okholm Skaarup

Hippo Ballerina, fourth position

2020

Sculpture of a Rhino Harlequin by Bjorn Skaarup Edition of 6

Danish, b. 1973 Bjorn Skaarup holds a MA in History and Art History from the University of Copenhagen, and a PHD in History from the European University Institute in Florence, Italy. Skaarup has also furthered his education with post-doctoral studies at the Warburg Institute, London and Columbia University, New York In addition to his career as a self-taught sculptor, Skaarup has written and illustrated numerous books on historical, archaeological, and anatomical subjects. "My animal sculptures represent a number of characters that have been given man-made and cultural tools and attributes that underline their particular traits – the dignity and supremacy of the majestic lion, the chivalrous nature of the ermine, the speed of the cheetah, the height of the giraffe, and the heavenly aspirations of the ostrich... The sculptures are a celebration of life and nature and its many intriguing shapes and creatures, all placed in peculiar and surreal encounters between nature and culture. The result is a group of bronze sculptures that combines the gracious and exclusive with the communicative, distorted and humorous." Okholm Skaarup has created a contemporary bestiary, or classical book of animals, in bronze. Each sculpture presents a whimsical story or allegory to decipher, with sources ranging from ancient fables and art history to music and modern animation. The Majestic Lion, traditional king of the animals, wears the crown and armor of a great monarch in the style of Medici court sculptor Giambologna, yet he sits astride a rocking horse, a reference to his fleeting and jovial power. Frogs reenact Homeric battles in the Batrachomyomachia and Micenaean Horse, while mice peer through spectacles and listen at telephones as The Five Senses. A cheetah rides a scooter to move faster, a giraffe stands on stilts to reach higher, and a kangaroo bounces on a pogo stick—a “kængurustylte” in Okholm Skaarup’s native Danish. From 1994 to 2004, Okholm Skaarup was an artist at the Danish National Museum, Copenhagen, before moving to Florence and receiving a PhD from the European University Institute in 2009. While in Florence, he studied the work of Renaissance sculptors Donatello, Michelangelo, and Giambologna, learning the vanishing art of large-scale bronze casting. “I am constantly trying to improve my skills in modeling, and see how far the medium can go,” Skaarup explains. “How many fun details you can add, how many forms you can create—ideally large, heavy forms that rest on light foundations, so the work appears as vibrant as possible. With bronze, you can make the most dynamic shapes imaginable.” In Okholm Skaarup’s intricately polychrome work, he explores the voluminous form of a tutu and leotard-clad hippo, which at once references Degas’s Little Dancer of Fourteen Years and Disney’s Fantasia...

Mixed media artwork - bronze sculpture installed on velvet

Sculpture Original bronze numbered 5/8 Born in 1960 in a family of artists collecting the bronzes of the Italian Renaissance, sculpture has always been part of the environment of El...