Rudolph Tegner — A Misunderstood Artist
There is hardly any artist in Denmark who has been the subject of more controversy than the sculptor Rudolph Tegner (1873-1950). Most of his artistic pursuits and creative work, characterized by his large-scale projects, pompous art, violent and theatrical expressions, evoked confusion and sparked resistance among the majority of the Danish cultural circle and the opinion makers of the time. Despite the public contempt, he continued undaunted his irrepressible creativity. With support from his beloved wife, Elna Tegner, he gained the strength and financial ability to fulfill his dream to realize his museum and sculpture park.
Nestled in the curvy hills, an hour away north from Copenhagen, a concrete cubist and introverted monument emerge as a cutting contrast to the green surroundings. Rudolph Tegner decided himself on the uncompromising design, an impressive mausoleum of his many years of hard work. The adjoining sculpture park and the grey and brutalist concrete walls, shaped as an octagon, now houses up to more than 250 of his works in plaster, clay, bronze, and marble. The museum's inner room acts as the central point of his collection of majestic works. With an 11 meters-high ceiling accompanied by a large skylight, the spacious room embraces the colossal and dramatic sculptures as they interact with the daylight, making you feel surprisingly tiny, leaving you with a genuine representation of his sculptural world and idealistic thinking.
Graduated from The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in the ancient style, Rudolph Tegner strived for a new monumental style. However, vitalism quickly absorbed him. The Athens Olympic Games of 1896 were the first to take place since antiquity, which sparked a tremendous interest in Olympic ideals, body, and bodily expressions.
As a frequent traveler, he found inspiration through his many trips to countries such as Greece, Italy, Spain, and North Africa. Shortly after his graduation, he settled in France with his wife, where he became acquainted with symbolism while experiencing a much broader recognition of his work than in Denmark. Quickly, his erotic, idealistic, and heroically exalted style became his trademark. Today the world-famous French artist, Auguste Rodin, is often highlighted as Tegner's most significant French influence. On the other hand, another French sculptor, Emile Antoine Bourdelle, shared many of the same artistic considerations and visions through comparable monstrous work. During his life, other artists such as Gustav Vigeland in Norway, Carl Milles in Sweden, and Bourdelle in France, also represented Tegner's distinctive style.
Despite an increasing understanding and broader recognition of his work abroad, the public opinion in Denmark was downward. Modesty and self-control were, and are often still, values highly associated with the term "Danishness", and these societal values were far from Tegner's demonstratively provocative sculptures and artistic attitude. Likewise, in conjunction with the Second World War in the late 1930s and early 1940s, dominant cultural figures in Denmark attributed Tegner's sculptures to the Nazism's hunt for "the superhuman". He suffered from contemporaneity, and very little of his work was exhibited in public. With sculptural traditions deeply rooted in more ancient and classical art primarily driven by the Danish artist Bertel Thorvaldsen — one of the most famous sculptors in Europe in the 19th century — his acceptance as an artist seemed hopeless.
Yet the aesthetic resistance he encountered seemed to be his dominant motivation. He continued his insatiable artistic pursuits and creative urge that ultimately lead to the establishment of his museum. A place that transports you from the antiquity reproduced in hyper-muscular and almost comical sculptures, to the citizens of early modernity portrayed in busts. You experience mythology, politics, and contemporaneity, from natural forms to burlesque and theatrical exaggerations. The museum and surrounding park reflect him as a challenging artist and colorful sculptor. Today his work receives the public gratitude and understanding it finally deserves - secured for the posterity of his unique settings.
