Kaare Nygaard
Inmate

bronze
27 x 8 x 12 in.
1992.574
Gift of the Ella and Kaare Nygaard Foundation

Kaare Nygaard was born in Norway, and acted as a surgeon during WWII in the U.S. where he immigrated just prior to the war. Many of his sculptures are inspired by the horrendous bodily pain that occurred during the war including at Nazi death camps. In Inmate, a naked body cowers as if in anticipation of physical punishment. Despite the classical use of bronze as a medium, Nygaard’s sculpture is distinctly modern in its abstraction. The only identifying features are the shaved head and male genitals.

In contemporary America, the word “inmate” conjures up a variety of associations including the disproportionate number of black men behind bars. In our society, the privilege and power to feel safe and protected by the police, and from police abuse, is skewed according to race. The ACLU predicts, “one out of every three Black boys born today can expect to go to prison in his lifetime, as can one of every six Latino boys — compared with one of every 17 white boys.” As a viewer of this suffering person, we must reckon with our own positionality which includes the power to look at this subject: safely, and from a distance.

Grace Jackson ‘19
Lasting Legacy 2019