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Cellist

Date1978
MediumStone
Dimensions31.5 x 13.5 x 12.5 cm
ClassificationsSculpture
Credit LineCollection & image © Hugh Lane Gallery. Donated by the President of Iceland, Vigdis Finnbogadottir, 1991. © Hallsteinn Sigurðsson.
Object number1814
DescriptionHallsteinn Sigurðsson was born in 1945 and studied at the School of Arts and Crafts in Iceland from 1963 to 1966, then went to the United Kingdom, where he studied sculpture at the Hornsey College of Art, London (1966–1967), Hammersmith College of Art, London (1967–1969) and the St. Martin’s School of Art, London (1969–1972).[4][5] In London he was influenced by the work of Anthony Caro and other "New Generation" sculptors.[6] After completing his studies in London, he made study trips to Italy, Greece and the United States.[4][5]

Hallsteinn held more than a dozen solo exhibitions in the years 1971 to 1997, and has been hired to create monuments for various organizations and municipalities in Iceland.[4] Early in his career, Hallsteinn created sculpture cast from concrete and various plastics.[5] In his more recent works, Hallsteinn most often uses aluminium and iron alloy, generally in abstract and geometric forms. Over time his structures have become lighter in form.[6] Dozens of his works are in public ownership, and his works are represented in the collections of museums including the Borgarness Museum, Icelandic National Gallery and Reykjavík Art Museum in Reykjavík, where he resides.[4] Some twenty-five of his sculptures are exhibited in the Gufunes sculpture park in northeast Reykjavík.[6] Hallsteinn is a member of the Icelandic Sculptors Society, which he established in the Icelandic capital in 1972 along with Jon Gunnar Árnason, Ragnar Kjartansson, Þorbjörg Pálsdóttir and others. He is also a member of the Icelandic Association of Visual Artists.[4] In 2002 a set of his sculptures based on Nordic mythology was installed in the tunnels and vaults of the Laxárvirkjun hydroelectric power station in north-central Iceland, where the works can be seen by visitors each summer.[3][5] In 2006 he exhibited at the Sigurjón Ólafsson Museum with a collection named "Wheel-Plow-Wings".[6]


On View
Not on view
Daniel O'Connell
Andrew O'Connor
1932
Lady Gregory
Jacob Epstein
1910
After Image
Michael Warren
1984
Robert Louis Stevenson
Augustus Saint-Gaudens
1887
Eagle
Jack Coughlin
Manhattan Slot
John Burke
1976
Bust of Barry Flanagan
Suzie Zamit
2013
Rhino
John Behan
c. 1976
Sow
John Behan
1975