Carl Nesjar, Sculptor Who Added Dimension to Picasso, Dies at 94

Carl Nesjar was often called Picasso’s right arm, but in truth he was also his left arm and, Picasso being Picasso, very likely a third arm as well.

An internationally known Norwegian sculptor, painter and printmaker, Mr. Nesjar was for nearly two decades Picasso’s chosen fabricator — the artist who took the master’s drawings and scale models and gave them physical form as immense public sculptures.

Mr. Nesjar (pronounced NEH-shar), who died on May 23 at 94, described himself as a translator of Picasso’s work, though perhaps it is more apt to call him a midwife — one who ushered into the world concrete-and-stone progeny whose height is measured in stories and whose weight is reckoned in tons.

The two men joined forces in the late 1950s and worked together until Picasso’s death in 1973, completing more than 30 sculptures. Their collaborations have graced sites in Sweden, where “Jacqueline,” a soaring statue of Picasso’s wife, overlooks a lake in Kristinehamn; as well as in Norway, France, Spain and Israel; on the campuses of Princeton University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and in Manhattan.

The Manhattan sculpture, “Bust of Sylvette,” was installed in the courtyard of Silver Towers, New York University’s high-rise apartment complex, in 1967. Twenty feet wide and 36 feet high, it was inspired by Sylvette David, one of Picasso’s favorite models. As realized by Mr. Nesjar in sandblasted concrete, the ponytailed Sylvette — all 60 tons of her — gazes steadfastly toward Bleecker Street with one of her several eyes.

Writing about the work in The New York Times in 1968, the art critic John Canaday said, “The sculpture is completely successful in its site — perfectly scaled to the buildings around it, harmonious in color and texture with them and placed for perfect visibility.” He added: “It is an ornamental pleasure and an aesthetic satisfaction.”

“Bust of Sylvette,” along with the towers, by the architect I. M. Pei, was declared a New York City landmark in 2008.

To etch the dark, textured lines that define Sylvette and many of Picasso’s other public sculptures, Mr. Nesjar used a technique of his own devising called Betograve.

The technique entails packing black basalt pebbles into frames of appropriate shape and then shaking the frames by machine until the pebbles are tightly tamped down. Over this dark foundation, liquid concrete is poured. Once the concrete has hardened, Mr. Nesjar, wielding a sandblaster as Picasso had his pencil, selectively effaced the surface, revealing the black below.

In adapting these vast Picassos to their sites, Mr. Nesjar was given carte blanche to tweak and turn the originals as needed. As he told The Times in 1968, “I must be the only person in the world who has corrected a Picasso drawing.”

Mr. Nesjar was born Carl Carlsen in Larvik, in southern Norway, on July 6, 1920. He adopted “Nesjar,” the Norse name for the coastal area around Larvik, early in his career.

Reared in Norway and in the part of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, then called Little Norway, the young Mr. Nesjar studied art at the Pratt Institute and Columbia University, and in Oslo and Paris.

His own work includes a series of “Ice Fountains” — luminous sculptures formed from cascading ice that have been installed throughout the world.

Among his other collaborations with Picasso is a set of breathtakingly delicate sandblasted murals that adorn government buildings in Oslo. Some of them — including “Fiskerne” (“The Fishermen”) and “Maken” (“The Seagull”) — sustained heavy damage in the 2011 bombing of those buildings by the Norwegian right-wing extremist Anders Behring Breivik. The future of those murals remains uncertain, The Telegraph of London reported on Monday.

Mr. Nesjar’s marriages to Inger Sitter and Gertruide Ruelle ended in divorce. His survivors include his third wife, Sylvia Antoniou; a daughter, Gro Nesjar Greve, from his marriage to Ms. Sitter; a son, Gustav, from his marriage to Ms. Ruelle; and three grandchildren.

His death, in Oslo, where he made his home, was confirmed by the Norwegian Consulate in New York.

Picasso’s immense regard for Mr. Nesjar’s vision was demonstrated — energetically — in one of their earliest meetings, as Mr. Nesjar recounted in The Times in 1968:

“In Scandinavia, there is great excitement about spreading culture for the masses, but not East European style,” he said. “When I showed Picasso photos of the concrete art I was working on in Oslo, he got very enthusiastic. He leapt to his feet and ran to show it to the maid.”

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