ATELIER OSMUNDSEN BRONZES FROM THE SEA

 "Ski for Light - Art for Sight"
Bronze dedicated September 1997 to honor Olav Pedersen, founder of Ski for Light;  (c) William Barth Osmundsen, Sculptor; Cast in NH by the Artist

The third Bronzes from the Sea exhibit, which took place in Houston, came about because of a Skiing event, which was introduced from Norway to the US by a man named Olav Pedersen.  My contact Einar Berg  for sailing onboard the Christian Radich was pictured in a national ski magazine skiing with a blind skier.

 

 I was amazed that someone who was blind would be skiing and I called up Einar, and asked, “What in the World are you doing in a skiing magazine with a blind skier? How can blind people ski?”

 

Einar said, not only is that man in the picture blind but he is an Osteopath physician,  “the only way you’ll understand, is come out and ski with us”. So two weeks later I flew to Squaw Valley, California and participated as a guide. 

 

As it turned out, Harald Middtun who was the Consul General of Norway to Houston arrived when I did and we shared a Chalet.  Harald told me that the next year in Houston,  they were having the Norway Festival. 

Evey year Houston picked a Country  that is important for trade with the Port City, and that next year it would be Norway.  Harald suggested; “We will have exhibitions and festivities, why don’t you bring your Bronze from the Sea exhibit to the festival;  the Christian Radich will be there as well”. 

 

I added three more bronzes to the collection, including; “Furling the Sail”, “Varnishing the Mast” and “Shipboard Guardians” which I exhibited with the original collection at Houston's Norway Festival. An Auditorium was set aside for my exhibit at the Houston Museum of Science.  There a film onboard the Christian  Radich, which I produced, was shown 4 times a day, in the exhibition room,  to visiting classes of school children and the general public.

Pdf download part 4

 

Flight of the Terns

The ‘Flight of the Terns’, also found a home, in Manhattan, in the Lobby of the Barber Steamship Lines, at 17 Battery Place. (pdf ref.) Unlike Barber Steamship, who’s President, Bob Pouch  wrote me a nice note about the ‘Terns’, I never heard back from Norway, where the SAS ‘Terns’ went, as to whether Mr. Hargrup liked his retirement gift from SAS North America until 10 years later when I had a four year exhibition at the Stamford Sheraton Hotel and Towers in Stamford, CT.

 

I was sculpting onsite at the Sheraton when an imposing older Norwegian gentleman came up to me and introduced himself as Knut Hargup’s brother-in-law.  I asked if he knew my work, he said, “I see your ‘Terns’ every Sunday when I have dinner at Knut’s home.”

“Did he like them?” I queried, “Well, Yes!” the gentleman said,  “Knut has gotten many Awards and gifts throughout his career, so many in fact, that a museum was built to house them in Norway.  But, he only kept your ‘Terns’ and a stuffed Polar Bear at his home.”

 

We had kind of a laugh over such eclectic taste.

In 1976 the ‘Terns’ sculpture and bronze process was followed by Photographer Roger Barth and his wife April, who wrote an article for a new magazine known as ‘40.  Roger Barth was the photographer at Burrows Gallerye; Roger and April were not related; - coincidental by name only. 

                                                                

40 Magazine

The “Eagles Flight” was also exhibited with the “Flight of the Terns” and unveiled at the Burrows Exhibit  in 1976.

Eagles Flight unveiled at Burrows Gallerye 

 

An edition of two ‘Eagles’ were cast with Tallix Foundry in Peekskill, NY.  The experience of casting with Tallix led me to build my own bronze foundry in New Hampshire 20 years later.  My first casting setup however, was for Sterling Silver and to fore fill a commission from Cartier Inc., in New York City, in 1981, for five of the ‘Cadet’ Motifs exhibited in Houston:- Up the Ratlines, Furling the Sail, Varnishing the Mast, Shipboard Guardians and At the Helm.

 

The “Eagles Flight”, which was exhibited at Burrows was sold shortly afterward to a collector.  The other ’Eagles Flight” was exhibited at the World Trade Center in Baltimore and later at the Sheraton-Stamford, Ct.  where it was purchased by Hubert M. Tibbetts, President and CEO of Lipton Tea.  Mr. Tibbetts had been presented with a bronze sculpture, from my America’s Cup series, “Shamrock-a Lipton Tribute”, which was also shown at the Sheraton, by the employees of Lipton Tea, when he retired as president and CEO. 

 

Years later upon  Mr. Tibbetts death, Mrs. Gunhild Tibbetts, presented the bronze “Eagles Flight” to the Boy Scouts of America for permanent placement at their Greenwich, CT. Headquarters.  Hubert Tibbetts had been an Eagle Scout.   (Pdf ref)

Download Pdf fini

 

 

 

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Norway in Houston Poster, Bronzes' Exhibit        Bill Osmundsen greeted by HRH Crown Prince Harald; Consul General Harald Middtun;  Chief Mate Steinar, "At the Helm, Artist,  onboard  'Radich'