Nils Aas

Nils Sigurd Aas (21 April 1933 – 10 February 2004) was a Norwegian sculptor. He was one of the most prominent artists in modern Norwegian sculpture and is particularly well known for his statue of Haakon VII, located in the June Seventh Square in Oslo, and for designing coins for Norwegian currency, including 10-krone and 20-krone coins. Biography Nils Sigurd Aas was born in Inderøy, in Nord-Trøndelag County, Norway. He grew up in a family of prominent carpenters and furniture makers. His grandfather (also named Nils Aas) had established a carpentry workshop and water-driven sawmill in Straumen. His father, Ivar Aas, took over the carpentry workshop at the death of the elder Nils Aas in 1927, and eventually won awards for his furniture work. The family also operated a Sunday School out of the same building as the workshop, from 1933 to 1973. Aas' mother Inga Lie was from Telemark and had come to the village in 1928, working for the local parish priest. Ivar and Inga met and married the same year, and the couple had five children: Marit (1929), Signe (1930), Nils (1933), Aslaug (1935) and Arne (1941). In his youth, Nils was an active as ski jumper and athlete. Nils was educated in the family trade of woodworking from an early age, and his earliest preserved work is a wooden sculpture of Bishop Arne Fjellbu, made when Aas was 16 years old. After graduating from secondary school and after a short stint in military service, Aas applied to the Norwegian National Academy of Craft and Art Industry in 1954 at the age of 21; his older sister, Marit, had started at the school two years earlier. His father marked the occasion by making a suitcase of wood as a farewell gift to the son. Aas studied at the school from 1954 to 1958, notably under Arne Bruland and Ivar Bell. Bell taught Aas calligraphy but ultimately pushed his pupil towards his eventual career as another type of artist, commenting "I think you are three-dimensional"; Aas took the advice and enrolled in sculpture classes the next term. Upon leaving the institute, Nils went on to study under sculptor Nils Flakstad from 1958 to 1959. At the end of 1959, he accepted work with Per Palle Storm. As a student, Aas had various commercial and industry jobs, particularly over his summers, including a stint at an advertising agency, and another as an assistant at the architectural and planning offices in Steinkjer.