Johannes Bjerg

Born in Ødis near Kolding, Bjerg was the son of farmer Jep Clausen Bjerg (1833–1917) and Mette Cathrine Bundsgaard (1844–1925). He attended the Latin School in Kolding before serving an apprenticeship with A.L. Johansen & Son in 1907 during which he created an oak bust of his father. Thereafter he spent an extended period in Copenhagen (1908–11) during which he created a silver medal for a bronze bust of his father. In 1911, he went to Paris to associate with progressive artists of the times such as Picasso, leading to his Cubic bronze bust of the Finnish sculptor Bertil Nilsson (1912).^[2][3]

While in Paris, Bjerg became a member of Section d'Or association, in which Auguste Agero (1880–1945) became a source of Cubic inspiration. With the outbreak of the First World War he returned to Denmark, where he crafted Abessinieren (1915), followed by Den svangre (1918), Elskovskampen (1922) and Danaide (1923), of which copies were installed in Copenhagen, Aarhus and Odensen.^[3] He later created monuments and statues of other figures which were installed in many Danish towns and cities.^[1] From the mid-1920s, he became Denmark's most prominent sculptor creating numerous official monuments in the traditional Danish Neoclassical style.^[3]

From 1922, Bjerg was a member of Den Frie Udstilling. In 1945, he became a professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts where he was director from 1943 to 1946.^[1]

On 24 February 1911, Bjerg married to Sigrid Marie Jacobsen (1883-1938=. She was a daughter of farmer Anders Peter Jacobsen (1850–1916) and Christine Marie Thomsen (1851–1931). She died just five years later. On 28 December 1933, he married secondly to French teacher Minna Birgithe Kristelle Mondrup (1906-=- She was a daughter of Director General of the Royal Danish Mail and Telegraph Agency C. Mondrup (1871–1949) and Mette Mogensen (1872–1944).

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  Dancer, Frederiksberg (1918)
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  Danaide, Copenhagen (1920)
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  Artemis Fountain, Copenhagen (1936)
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  Jakob Peter Mynster, Copenhagen (1941)

Bjerg was awarded the Thorvaldsen Medal in 1944.^[3]