The exhibition at The Swedish History Museum was one of 32 exhibitions presented during the European Capital of Culture year, when Stockholm was the European Capital of Culture in 1998. In this context, Sivert exhibited the one-eyed – the cyclops.
The exhibition at The Swedish History Museum was one of the 32 exhibitions presented during the European Capital of Culture year 1998, when Stockholm was the European Capital of Culture. In this context, Sivert displayed The One-Eyed – the Cyclops.
"It is difficult to know why Sivert chose to contribute precisely a sculpted one-eyed figure to the European Capital of Culture year. In Greek mythology, the cyclops is associated with brute strength and a limited, one-eyed perspective. But the one-eyed can also be viewed from a completely different perspective: the single eye as a symbol of concentration and focus, like a lens directed towards the essential and burning away the superfluous.
In such an interpretation, the cyclops becomes an image for an approach that prioritizes depth over breadth, action over discourse, and concrete creation over abstract theory. It is an aesthetic stance that Sivert returned to throughout his artistry, tested, and sometimes also questioned.
Sivert's art can be perceived as at once scientific, intuitive, and eye-opening – depending on how one chooses to look at it. He was a low-key critic of his time, but that did not hinder the strong creative force and desire to comment on the world around him, with the artistic means available to him.
Sivert also had a lifelong interest in the human face and facial physiognomy. This is evident not least in the series of images where he examines his own facial expressions. Here there is a clear connection to the sculptor Franz Xaver Messerschmidt (1736–1783), whose famous character heads explore the human face through strongly exaggerated and expressive grimaces.
The one-eyed face can therefore also be seen in light of Sivert's recurring investigations of human physiognomy. The eye, the profile, and the shape of the face became for him not just depictions, but starting points for investigating identity, perception, form, and space." /JÖ
"Le Cyclope" is a Symbolist painting by Odilon Redon depicting the myth of Polyphemus' love for the nymph Galatea. It is executed in oil on cardboard, then mounted on wood, and is now located at the Kröller-Müller Museum in the Netherlands. The painting has been dated to various times between 1898 and 1914.
Those interested can read more at https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cykloper
Sivert had a lifelong interest in human facial physiognomy. This can be seen in his series of images with his own facial expressions. These were inspired by the characters of sculptor Franz Messerschmidt (1736–1783), which he developed for his portrait busts.