Sabber - an original papercutter
27.01. - 09.06.2024
Sabber was an original artist who mastered the art of psaligraphy - popularly called papercutting. Psaligraphy is Greek and means to paint with scissors - and that’s exactly what Sabber did, when he cut works about animate life and subterranean creatures.
Sabber grew up in Birkerød, where he started cutting paper figures as a child. After primary school, Sabber attended the ceramics programme at the School of Arts and Crafts, and later worked as a painter at the Royal Theatre. However, he had not neglected his paper cuttings, which he sold in Tivoli Gardens.
At some point, he felt he needed to get closer to nature, and in the early 1970s, he moved to Bornholm, where he lived until his death in 2005. On Bornholm, he wrote and drew for the daily newspaper Bornholmeren. For many years, he lived on a smallholding in Østerlars, where he was inspired by the legends of “The Undergrounds”. Sabber gradually gained status as the sunshine island’s popular artist.
Using scissors as a brush, he produced imaginative, fantastical, and whimsical paper cut-outs of people, animals, and underground trolls. Some downright beautiful. Others fascinating in their richness of detail. A few almost Storm P. like - with a little acidity added. Depth and darkness can also be found in Sabber’s paper cuts - and humour.
He became a folk hero, telling fairy tales and cutting for the masses. He was often compared to Hans Christian Andersen, but never experienced the same institutional recognition for his art.
However, he has a significant role in Danish art history with his chairmanship of the association Papirets Kunstnere, where he fought for many years to establish the recognition of psaligraphy as an artistic discipline in Denmark. A career that started in Tivoli Gardens and ended with an accident in Poland. Most of Sabber's works are in private hands, proving that he was truly the people's artist of the people.
Sabber - an original paper cutter unfolds the practice, personality and history of a unique artist.
