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Review·1987SV

Uppsala Reaction to Twisted Column Outside the City Library

Bengt Olof Kälde— Bengt Olof Kälde (f. 1936) var inte journalist, utan en välkänd svensk konstnär, konservator och heraldiker (expert på vapensköldar).Han var bland annat verksam som vapenmålare vid Kungl. Maj:ts orden och målade över 100 serafimersköldar som hänger på Kungliga slottet. Han var också en av Europas främsta mosaikkonstnärer.
Brev till skulptören

Maskinöversatt — ännu ej granskad.

May 16, 1987

The Sculptor Sivert Lindblom Grev Magnigatan 10 114 55 STOCKHOLM

Re: The sculptures at Uppsala City Library

From my own experience, I know that it is not always the case that an artist receives any concrete expressions of a positive or negative reaction from the public regarding their artworks, once they have been installed. Allow me therefore to express a little of my own joy that our city has now been enriched with two sculptures by your hand, which were inaugurated yesterday at the new city library.

My spontaneous reaction to the spiral-shaped copper column at the entrance to Svartbäcksgatan was exclusively positive. Through this column, the entire street has gained an architectural effect of classical character, which, through its archaic monumentality, truly constitutes a signal outside the library. What immediately came to mind was the same festive feeling as when I first stood before the ancient bronze Asklepios column in Constantinople's hippodrome.

The archaic-classical tone is even more noticeably elaborated in the courtyard sculpture. Even though its motif is from a significantly older era, I experienced before it something of the same bewildered historical joy of discovery as when I, in Rome, next to a house wall below the Capitolium, came across the foot of Emperor Constantine's colossal statue.

Thank you for these enriching additions to our Uppsala!

BENGT OLOF KÄLDE

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