April 30, 1932
Opening with a private view and reception for members of the Museum on the afternoon of April 11th, the Brooklyn Museum will present two important exhibitions of art from the Scandinavian countries.
One of these will be a large exhibition of the sculpture of the famous Swedish sculptor Carl Milles. This is the first comprehensive exhibition of the artist’s work in New York City. The group will be shown in the Sculpture Court of the Museum.
At the same time in the fourth floor galleries will be shown the Fourth exhibition by The Scandinavian-American artists. The exhibitors in this collection are drawn from art colonies throughout the United States.
Both of these exhibitions will open to the public on the 12th and continue through May 15th.
The opportunity to view so large a group of the work by Milles has long been awaited in the United States which for over fifteen years have been increasingly conscious of his preeminence in the field of monumental sculpture. Comparatively few of his works have reached this country up to the present time which explains the time it has taken for America to become acquainted with them.. The circulation of the present exhibition is in fact the first real showing of Milles’ work of the side of the Atlantic and outside of his own gardens at Liding near Stockholm, one of the few collections which can be considered reasonably comprehensive. The height of Milles’ achievement up to the period of the Great War, in opinion of Director Rogers of the St. Louis Museum, is marked by the group of “Two Dancing Girls” a replica of which is shown in this exhibition. Also strongly indicative of this artist’s ability to work in the monumental medium is the famous Poseidon Fountain commissioned by the City of Gothenburg for the square in front of its Museum. Some of the bronze figures which decorate the basin of the fountain are seen in the exhibition and even in these fragments is felt the sensation of their being suspended in fluid. Another famous fountain is the Folkungs. Fountain in the little town of Linkoping. The fountain commemorates the legendary hero Folke Pilbyter, the progenitor of the old royal house of Sweden. A replica in bronze of the center figure and of various details of the whole are shown.
Though essentially modern in spirit the sculptor has kept in mind the traditions of the part, and his subtle linking of the two moods has helped to place him high among modern plastic artists.
Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1931 - 1936. 01-06_1932, 030-1. View Original
