ATELIER OSMUNDSEN BRONZES FROM THE SEA

Bill Osmundsen:     " I was exhibiting with Burrows Gallerye in Englewood, NJ in 1975 and also working through my first bronze sculptures at Tallix Foundry in Peekskill, NY.   The Eagles Flight and the Flight of the Terns  were to be exhibited at the gallery that Fall. 

 

Following the exhibit I presented,  the idea of doing a bronze sculpture series on the Tall Ships which were schedule to arrive in New York on July 4th, 1976, to Royal Copenhagen and Bing & Grondahl.  Both porcelain companies were being represented by Burrows Gallerye.  Royal Copenhagen was already marketing their first  series of bronze acrobats that were being cast by Tallix Foundry.

 

During my Navy enlistment, I had produced paintings for the Amphibious Command, having participated in an ‘Operation off the coast of Turkey’ which included an Atlantic crossing into the  Mediteranian.  I wanted to do something which gave me the same type of direct observation and participation that this Navy experience provided.

 

I asked each of the porcelain companies if they could get me onboard the Danmark, the Danish Tall Ship.  When they were unable to supply a birth aboard the Danmark,  I  initiated a written request to the Norwegian Information Service in New York to sail onboard the Christian Radich.

 

Bill Osmundsen onboard Christain Radich

The Norwegian Information Service forwarded my request to sail onboard the Christian Radich to Captain Kjell Thorsen who approved it and I formed a small crew of my own friends;  Drew Degrado to do still and movie footage and Jim Miskowski to keep a Journal & Log of the trip.  I would do drawings and paintings onboard. 

 

Our trio meet up with the ‘Radich’ after the New York July 4th Operation Sail in Boston Harbor.  From that port we sailed for eight days arriving in Montreal during the Summer Olympics. 

 

Tossing Aloft is finished with a

Hot Patina

During the winter I created the first of the sculptures for the ‘Cadet’ series, Tossing Aloft.  After considering the limitations of marketing this new work through the porcelain companies, which had size restrictions in mind, I decided to market them directly. 

 

The Norwegian-American community, in New York,  was the first to respond with interest  and the President of Scandinavian Airlines  offered to exhibit my new Bronzes from the Sea Exhibit on Fifth Avenue, at Rockefeller Center, June 1978. 

 The exhibit caught the attention of one of Norway's major tabloid newspapers VG and I was interviewed by their New York correspondent Rolf Lovstrom.

Christian Radich under sail

 Norway was planning it’s own Operation Sail in July 1978 and because of the favorable article I received in the VG, offers to exhibit on a number of venues came forward.  On the recommendation of Norway's Consul Commercial in New York, I chose to exhibit with David-Andersen, an outstanding silver shop, in the heart of downtown Oslo.

 

       Lasse Kolstadt, explains race route for the

Tall Ships.

A duplicate Bronzes from the Sea collection was flown to Oslo while the SAS exhibit continued. During the OpSail festivities, in Norway and celebrating their Tall Ship race, award ceremonies were held at Oslo’s City Hall. Norway’s HM King Olav V presented At the Helm, which had been commissioned for the City of Oslo Award, to the Captain and crew of the Christian Radich.

       VG Article on David-Andersen Exhibit

 

Later that day I spoke with Captain Thorsen about the presentation.  He said; “I asked the King if I should take the sculpture or if I should let one of the Cadets (who also came up to receive the award). “You better take it”. Responded King Olav; “This thing is bloody heavy.”

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Artist Bill Osmundsen completes “At the Helm”

 

Translation and original article by Norwegian VG  Correspondent to the US Rolf Lovstrom.

ARTIST OF NORWEGIAN DESCENT

DEPICTS  LIFE AT SEA

 

When Wm Barth Osmundsen was ten years old his Father took him to see the movie Windjammer.

The same year this documentary film was shown the Christian Radich came to New York and the Family visited the proud ship.  The boy who stood on the deck made himself a promise that one day he to would sail onboard the Christian Radich.

 

Recently, Wm Barth Osmundsen, third generation Norwegian-American from a Stavanger sailor’s family opened an exciting exhibit from life onboard the Christian Radich.  To date he has completed six different Bronzes based on studies made while sailing up the east coast with the Christian Radich.  In conjunction with OpSail ‘76.  These Bronzes are now exhibited in the windows of SAS on Fifth Avenue, New York.

 

“The old sailboats have always fascinated me, my grandfather Oscar was Captain, he came to the United States  at the turn of the century as a carpenters ‘ apprentice and later became a skipper on pleasure yachts for east coast families .  I have always felt attracted to the sea and these sail ships”.

 

Osmundsen’s most impressive bronzes’ in the series depicts a cadet “At the Helm” and three climbing “Up the Ratlines”.

 

Osmundsen says: “I hope I will be able to exhibit the ‘Bronzes’ in Oslo, Norway in OpSail 78; I am working on it but plans are not definite yet.”

 

“Christian Radich was Inspiration”

 

There is a considerable amount of time involved in the creation of these Bronzes.  Bill and two assistants boarded the Christian Radich in Boston and sailed with the ship to Nova Scotia.  While Bill sketched his friends shot film and kept a Log of the event.  On the basis of his sketches and photography Bill created his Bronze Sculptures.  In association they have cooperated in the making of a short film and a dissolve program from their journey aboard the Christian Radich.

 

Bill Osmundsen, 31 years old, is one of the lucky ones who has managed to become what he really wants to become in life; an Artist, he says; “my father, William Torger, studied art between the first and second World Wars but had to find another occupation in the 1930’s.  He worked in a chemical company and later founded his own chemical brokerage (OzChem Co.)  which is still the property of the family, however my father encouraged me to continue where he had to stop.  He taught me to paint, model and he supported me when I chose art as a study in college”..

 

When Bill was hardly eligible for voting (this is a Norwegian phrase), when he owned a New Jersey Art Gallery and at the same time gave lessons in Modeling and Sculpture in an art society New Jersey (Ridgewood Art Institute) .  He served 4 years in the Navy an Illustrator-Draftsman where his nautical paintings and murals led the Navy to give him his own workshop and free hands to paint maritime and naval motifs.

 

“The Sea and Ships fascinate me, I have always felt attracted to the Maritime.  I guess that’s why I like to pick my motifs from the Sea.”                                                                      

Bill Osmundsen

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