SONJA FERLOV MANCOBA
Born 1911 in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Died 1984 in Paris, France.
Sonja Ferlov Mancoba holds a central position in Danish art history. Primarily affiliated with Linien, she also exhibited with Høstudstillingen and CoBrA. Ferlov Mancoba's sculptures from 1935 to 1984 are artistic expressions of her view of humanity: "They are human expressions more than art," as she put it. She believed in letting the material speak to her and proceeded without prior plans or finished compositions in mind. In her strong bronze sculptures, you see inspiration fluctuating between movements of spontaneous art and concrete constructivism.
Born 1911, Copenhagen, Denmark
Sonja Ferlov Mancoba holds a central position in Danish art history. Primarily affiliated with Linien, she showed with other Danish artists groups as well, including Høstudstillingen and CoBrA. In 1936 she moved to Paris, where in 1942 she married the South African painter Ernest Mancoba. Returning to Denmark in 1947, they were part of Høstudstillingen's CoBrA years, 1948 and 1949. Discouraged by the break-up of the movement, they moved back to Paris in 1961. Ferlov Mancoba's sculptures from 1935 to 1984 are artistic expressions of her view of humanity: "They are human expressions more than art," as she put it. She believed in letting the material speak to her and proceeded without prior plans or finished compositions in mind, and in her strong bronze sculptures you see inspiration that fluctuate between the movements of spontaneous art and the concrete constructivism as well as tradition African art.
Sonja Ferlov Mancoba, Untitled 1, 1958, Bronzem 8 x 5 x 6 in
Sonja Ferlov Mancoba, L'arche, ca. 1964, Bronze, 23.5 x 17 x 16 in
Sonja Ferlov Mancoba, Guardians of our Inheritance, 1973, Bronze, Height 12 in
Sonja Ferlov Mancoba, Mask Totem, ca. 1977, Bronze, 22 x 12.5 x 5 in
Sonja Ferlov Mancoba, Growth, 1967-1968, Bronze, 15 x 9 x 6.5 in
Sonja Ferlov Mancoba, Untitled 2, n/d, Bronze, 8.5 x 7 x 10.5 in
Sonja Ferlov Mancoba, Untitled (Lille Sol 2. udgave), n/d, Bronze, 6 x 4 x 5.5 in
If museums are serious about globalizing their collections, it won't do just to pick out a few Africans or Asians or Latin Americans whose art superficially resembles what the West already approbates. Art history has to be preconceived as a perpetual migration of artists, images and ideas - across oceans, across decades. A sterling case study awaits in the upstairs space of Aicon Gallery, displaying the lean, precise, calligraphic abstractions of Ernest Mancoba (1904 - 2002), a South African painter who spent his career in Denmark and France.
