Christian "Nuunu" Rosing.

Self-taught – Naturalistic mutiple artist
Carver / Skulptor / Modeller / Painter / Draughtsman

Born April 29th 1944 in Nuuk, Greenland

Resident in Denmark

My motive power from childhood was my hearing handicap. This handicap intensified my sight and memory in the things I saw and experienced. I am working very much with Greenlandic motives but do Danish motives as well.

Working fields

Skulpture works in soapstone, marble, limestone, granite, ice and snow.
Carving works in wood, ivory, horn, amber, bone, reindeer antler and brass.
Visual artist within mural paintings, portraits in oil and lead, watercolour, pastel paintings and Indian ink drawings.


Other fields of work
Course activities in Greenland and Denmark within stone skulpturing, ornamental art and oil painting


Original educations
Carpenter, joiner, technical assistant, careers master, subject teacher.
All these educations have been most useful to me as an artist and during my course activities.

At the time my hearing was better, I did several lectures on Greenland and my own life as an artist.

My father – Nikolaj Rosing – was a skilful painter. He was educated as a teacher. He served as a mayor in Nuuk during my childhood. Later he served as a member of the Folketing (The Danish Parliament) for 16 years.

My mother Maria Rosing is the daughter of the vicar and very skilful painter Niels Lynge from Nuuk. My uncle Hans Lynge was one of Greenland´s greatest artists.

About myself

I had a hard time in the public school academically. At the same time I discovered that I was the best in class in the creative fields such as drawing, painting and woodworking.

In August 1958 I came to Denmark because my father was to start a course before he should start as a principal at the first folk high school in Greenland – Knud Rasmussens Højskole - in Sisimiut/Holsteinsborg.

During our stay in Denmark which was only supposed to last 8 months, the perhaps greatest disaster in Greenland´s history happened. The ship M/S Hedtoft went down with about 100 passengers aboard near Kap Farvel in January 1959.

One of the passengers was the at that time member of the Folketing Augo Lynge whom my father was the substitute for. My father was therefore to take his seat at the Folketing.

At that time I was only nearly 15 years old and my life in Denmark, which I had never thought already was taking place, has meant a lot to me in many ways.

Being in a crowd of six brothers and sisters and at the same time being the only one not to have good school capacities, gave me at that time a pretty great repression to this lack of school capacities. I wanted to do something about this situation and had only my creative capacities as tools. On the other hand my motivation was high indeed.

So I started borrowing books with good illustrations at the library and taught myself to draw all the Greenlandic animals. Here I discovered something strange. After having drawn an animal I was able to twist and turn the animals that I once draw, inside my head – just in the same way you do with your computer.

This ability I made very much use of later when I started making ornamentary art in Greenlandic materials. And again later during my courses where I was to guide the participants.

My private increase of capability actually continued during 30 years. I tested myself again and again and was often astonished over how easy I was able to get away with those new assignments I undertook.

After 30 years of intense work I was able to confirm to myself that I had now reached an acceptance of my own true worth compared to my sisters and brothers. To me this was worth all the hard work.

If I was to say what commission has meant most for me, it would be The Great Seal skulptured in stone, today situated at the Greanland Institute of Natural Resources in Nuuk. Apart from being the biggest stone skulpture made by a Greenlander this skulpture for me dokuments to the population of my native town Nuuk that – the former small, weak and hearing handicapped boy – today has turned out being a strong and independant human being.

There is a saying that you ought to be somehow crazy to be an artist.

I would definitely agree with this saying telling this little story.

In 1961 I was operated for the first time because an inflammation of the middle ear had infected both

my ears. At that time I was 16 years old. The operation was a success although the patient still was not able to hear very much.

Still – some months later when I was taking a shower one single drop of water hit my middle ear as I had no ear drums. The result was that I suddenly was able to hear the neighbours radio and people in the streets for 10 seconds.