Norman Carlberg


Norman K. Carlberg was an American sculptor, photographer, and printmaker. He is noted as an exemplar of the modular constructivist style.

Early life and education

Carlberg was born in Roseau, Minnesota. He was the son of Gustav Carlberg and his wife Alma Forsberg. He studied at the Minneapolis School of Art and then enlisted in the Air Force. He finished his undergraduate and graduate degree in art at the Yale School of Art under Josef Albers, who was instrumental in his acceptance as a student at Yale and his nomination for a Fulbright Fellowship to teach at Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. Besides Josef Albers, Robert Engman was a huge influence as a teacher and later as a good friend. Norman died 11 November 2018.

Exhibitions and career

"Recent Sculpture USA", a 1959 exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, featured Carlberg's work. Afterwards, Carlberg taught briefly in Santiago, Chile at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. In 1961, he was named director of the Rinehart School of Sculpture at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. He taught at MICA until 1997.
He collaborated with architects on major public projects, such as the Riverside Centre, designed by Harry Seidler and Associates in Brisbane, Australia.

Style: Modular constructivism, minimalism

Carlberg has written: "My style of sculpture represents the movement known as 'modular constructivism', which grew into its maturity and popularity in the 50s and 60s." The "modular" aspect of Carlberg's constructions is often readily apparent to the eye. Carlberg discussed modular constructivism with art critic Brian Sherwin, stating,
Carlberg's sculptures often consist of repetitions of such a unit, a basic shape capable of combining with other such elements in various ways—somewhat in the way a composer such as Bach or Webern might compose a piece of music by exploring the combinatorial possibilities of a single motivic cell, working within implicit constraints. At Yale, Erwin Hauer was an important influence who prodded Carlberg in this stylistic direction. While both men often employed curvilinear forms as modules, Carlberg more often used relatively geometric, hard-edged design units, often combining curves with straight edges in the same module. His prints, mostly dating after 1970, show a similar preoccupation with precision, simplicity, and modularity. Some are actually groups of prints, placed contiguously together on a wall, with each print conceived as a module.

Collections

Carlberg's sculptures are in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the Art and Architecture Gallery at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, the Hirshhorn Museum, the Guggenheim Museum, the Josef & Anni Albers Foundation, and the Baltimore Museum of Art.