Et skumpelskud. Sammenkrøben abe 1908

Niels Nielsen made this bronze of a huddled monkey, now at the SMK, and it's such a tender little thing. There’s a deep empathy in those smooth, caressing forms. It's like Nielsen found the most comforting pose, a kind of fetal position, and then rendered it in this warm, tactile medium. Bronze has this amazing way of holding onto touch, you know? You can almost feel the artist's hands shaping the clay, pressing into the form. Look at the way the light catches the curves, the subtle shifts in the surface. And those hands! They're so expressive, cradling the body, almost as if the monkey is holding itself together. I think of Rodin, who understood that bodies are never just bodies, but also containers for emotions, for histories, for all the stuff that makes us human, or, in this case, monkey. It's this understanding that makes art such a fascinating and endlessly rewarding conversation.