dansk Billedhuggersamfund

Erik Brandt

"Lillebælthus"

Mariendalsvej 47

5610 Assens

Tlf: +45 6471 5127

Mail: mail@erik-brandt.dk

Web: www.erik-brandt.dk

Billedhuggeren ERIK BRANDT

Erik Brandt (f. I 937) har fra 1985 skabt en række skulpturer, der i mange tilfælde er offentlig tilgængelige, i den forstand at de er udsmykninger i åbne rum.
Det har præget Erik Brandt, at han er opvokset på landet, nærmere betegnet Vestfyn, Assens, hvor han stadig bor; i dag sammen med sin hustru tekstilkunstneren Anne Marie Egemose. livets cyklus, fødsel og død, årsti- derne der afløser hinanden og dermed giver vækstbetingelser for den afgrøde, menneske og dyr er afhængige af. Dette kan opleves som noget fundamentalt i Erik Brandts livssyn og kan aflæses i hans skulpturelle form-sprog, hvor frøet eller kærnen/akset er til stede mere eller mindre gennemskueligt, jf. granitskulpturen Skabelsen fra 1985 , hvor nyt liv bryder frem fra et frø og det skulpturelle anlæg med vandkunst i granit ved Dres-lette Kirke på Fyn fra 1996, hvor et aks, der også kan opfattes som livets træ, understreger liv og genfødsel.

Bearbejdet natur

Granit og vand kombineres ofte af Erik Brandt. Den hårde granit og det flydende vand er kontraster men danner tilsammen en helhed. Granitten skal bearbejdes med redskaber, og netop den bearbejdede natur er et gennemgående tema i Brandts mange udsmykninger. Erik Brandt har selv både en landbrugsuddannelse og er uddannet på Det fynske Kunstakademi. Med redskabet rendyrkes ideerne. Dette kan også aflæses i skulpturer- nes symbolsprog, jf. frøet der kan opfattes som en kugle, den fuldkomne geometrisk rumlige form jf. vandkun- sten i granit og beton ved Nestlégården i Fredericia fra 1987, hvor tre pollen er et symbol på liv. Her ses også tydeligt Erik Brandts sans for at modstille en ru og en glat overflade samt to forskellige granit- farver.

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English version

The Sculptor Erik Brandt

Since 1985, Erik Brandt (b. 1937) has created a number of sculptures that in many cases are publicly accessible - in the sense that they function as decorations of open spaces.
Erik Brandt's work is ciearly influenced by the fact that he grew up in the countryside, that of West Funen and Assens, where he still lives with his wife, the textile artist Anne Marie Egemose. The life cycle, birth and death, the succeeding seasons that provide the conditions for the crops on which humans and animals depend - these are fundamental to Erik Brandt's outlook on life and are present in his sculptural idiom, where the seed or the grain/ear of corn are more or less transparently visible, cf. the granite sculpture The Creation from 1 985
(no. I 0), where new life emerges from a seed. The same applies to the granite sculpture with fountain at Dreslette Church on Funen from 1996, where an ear of corn that can also be seen as the tree of life undersco'res the theme of life and rebirth (no. 14).

Transformed nature

Granite and water are often combined in Erik Brandt's work, the hardness of the granite and the fluidity of the water being contrasts that nevertheless combine to form a whole. The granite has to be fashioned using tools - and precisely this theme-of transformed nature is a recurring element in Brandt's many monumental works. Erik Brandt has qualifications from both an agricultural institute and the Funen Academy of Fine Arts. His ideas are cultivated by tools. This is also evident in the symbolic language of the sculptures, cf. the seed which can be perceived as a globe, the perfect geometrical spatial shape, cf. the fountain in granite and concrete at Netlé- gården in Fredericia (nos. 5 and 6) from 1987, where three pollen grains are a symbol of life. Here, too, Erik Brandt's flair for placing contrasting rough and smooth surfaces as well as two different shades of granite along- side each other is ciearly evident.

Ability to empathise with the given surroundings

All of Erik Brandt's monumental works speak eloquently of his great ability to empathise with the particular assignment without compromising in any way on artistic demands, cf. the granite fountain from 1987 at Dalum Agricultural College, Odense,, where grains and water are combined i.a. with soft organic shapes that provide associations with animal forms - in perfect harmony with the location.
A gigantic Column of Honour in bronze, placed on a twelve-ton plinthof red granite from Bohus in West Sweden and surrounded in turn by a circular pool, was officially unveiled in 1995 on the main square of Stora Torget in Assens'twinned city of Filipstad in Värmland, Sweden. Erik Brandt won the competition on the fixed assignment in praise of labour. On the bronze column Brandt has executed a frieze which climbs the column.
in spiral fashion. The account of labour in the actual area is syrnbolised with the aid of working implements from various periods of history: the round stone from the Stone Age, alongside such tools as the hammer, anvil, forge, bellows and tongs. Female labour is represented i.a. by kitchen utensils and rigid heddie. The local Wasa crisp rye bread can also be seen on the column, which is topped by a gilt globe. The circie, the globe and the column symbolise the striving for the perfect, while the tools and implements underline quite tangibly the role they play in transforming nature.

The positioning øf the sculptures