Victor Emanuel Lindstrand
Encyclopedia
Victor Emanuel Lindstrand, known as Vicke Lindstrand (born 27 November 1904 in Gothenburg
, died 7 May 1983 in Kosta
) was a Swedish glass designer
, textile and ceramic designer, and painter. He is considered a pioneer of Swedish glass art
.
. He had studied commercial art
and worked in commercial illustration before beginning his career at the glass manufacturer Orrefors
in 1928. In 1950 he joined Kosta Glasbruk
as an artistic director before his retirement in 1973. He spent the last 10 years of his life as a freelance artist working with Hanne Dreutler and Arthur Zirrnsack at Studio Glashyttan in Åhus.
He made his debut as a designer
at the Stockholm World Fair in 1930, where he presented twelve glass vases with enamel decor in exotic patterns. For this he received great attention from international design publications. Lindstrand added new artistic dimensions to the already famous Orrefors glass with his unique designs and revitalization of classic forms and techniques. During his time at Orrefors he worked on engraved glass and Graal vases. With sculptor Edvin Öhrström he developed the new Ariel technique (named by his actress wife Kristina). Orrefors could not afford to keep Lindstrand during the war and between 1943 and 1950 he became creative leader at Uppsala Ekeby, where he designed many different stoneware objects ranging from pots to figural sculptures.
Gothenburg
Gothenburg is the second-largest city in Sweden and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated on the west coast of Sweden, the city proper has a population of 519,399, with 549,839 in the urban area and total of 937,015 inhabitants in the metropolitan area...
, died 7 May 1983 in Kosta
Kosta, Sweden
Kosta is a locality situated in Lessebo Municipality, Kronoberg County, Sweden with 941 inhabitants in 2005.It is located between the cities of Kalmar and Växjö, in the forested Småland province....
) was a Swedish glass designer
Art glass
Definitions of art glass can be as complex and contentious as definitions of what constitutes "art" and will inevitably include many refinements and exceptions...
, textile and ceramic designer, and painter. He is considered a pioneer of Swedish glass art
Glass art
Studio glass or glass sculpture is the modern use of glass as an artistic medium to produce sculptures or three-dimensional artworks. Specific approaches include working glass at room temperature cold working, stained glass, working glass in a torch flame , glass beadmaking, glass casting, glass...
.
Background
As a child, Lindstrand was interested in drawingDrawing
Drawing is a form of visual art that makes use of any number of drawing instruments to mark a two-dimensional medium. Common instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes, wax color pencils, crayons, charcoal, chalk, pastels, markers, styluses, and various metals .An artist who...
. He had studied commercial art
Commercial art
Commercial art is historically a subsector of creative services, referring to art created for commercial purposes, primarily advertising. The term has become increasingly anachronistic in favor of more contemporary terms such as graphic design and advertising art.Commercial art traditionally...
and worked in commercial illustration before beginning his career at the glass manufacturer Orrefors
Orrefors
Orrefors is a locality situated in Nybro Municipality, Kalmar County, Sweden with 696 inhabitants in 2005. The internationally acclaimed Orrefors glassworks are situated here....
in 1928. In 1950 he joined Kosta Glasbruk
Kosta Glasbruk
Kosta Glasbruk is a Swedish glassworks founded by two foreign officers in Charles XII's army, Anders Koskull and Georg Bogislaus Stael von Holstein, in 1742 . It is located in Kosta, Sweden...
as an artistic director before his retirement in 1973. He spent the last 10 years of his life as a freelance artist working with Hanne Dreutler and Arthur Zirrnsack at Studio Glashyttan in Åhus.
He made his debut as a designer
Designer
A designer is a person who designs. More formally, a designer is an agent that "specifies the structural properties of a design object". In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, such as consumer products, processes, laws, games and graphics, is referred to as a...
at the Stockholm World Fair in 1930, where he presented twelve glass vases with enamel decor in exotic patterns. For this he received great attention from international design publications. Lindstrand added new artistic dimensions to the already famous Orrefors glass with his unique designs and revitalization of classic forms and techniques. During his time at Orrefors he worked on engraved glass and Graal vases. With sculptor Edvin Öhrström he developed the new Ariel technique (named by his actress wife Kristina). Orrefors could not afford to keep Lindstrand during the war and between 1943 and 1950 he became creative leader at Uppsala Ekeby, where he designed many different stoneware objects ranging from pots to figural sculptures.
Monumental glass sculptures
Constructed with thousands of 8mm thick glass window panes, glued together using invisible 2 part epoxy glue (Ciba-Geigy). The flat-drawn glass used (Emmaboda, Sweden) is deep green when seen from the edge of the pane (modern float glass would be much paler).- Monumental Fountain, New York World Fair, 1939 (3m tall, 6 tons, not a flat pane construction)
- Ikaros Nadel, Stuttgart, 1964 (9m tall, 24 tons, 1000 panes) 48°45′0.1"N 9°6′19.8"E
- Prisma, Norrköping, 1967 (11.5m tall, 33 ton, 3500 panes)
- Grön eld, Umeå, 1970 (9m tall, 45 tons, 3000 panes)
- Legend i Glas, Växjö, 1978 (5.5m tall, 12 tons, 1100 panes)
External links
- Lindstrand's website
- Some of Lindstrand works
- http://www.clevelandart.org/explore/artist.asp?artistLetter=L&recNo=182 Lindstrand works at The Cleveland Museum of Art]
Further reading
- Plath, Iona, Decorative Arts of Sweden (1965), Courier Dover Publications, ISBN 0-4862-1478-8
- Berg, Per, Vicke Lindstrand: 100 år
- Lindstrand, Vicke, Vicke Lindstrand : [utställning]
- Jones, Mark Ian, "A blind spot? The perception of the 1950s glass designs of Vicke Lindstrand." (2006) , Helsinki, International Committee of Design History and Studies ICDHS Nordic Forum for Design History. ISBN 951-558-210-5 http://tm.uiah.fi/connecting/proceedings/Jones.pdf
- Jones, Mark Ian, "Reinventing Tradition. Vicke Lindstrand and the Kosta Dilemma" (2006) Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands, Design History Society. ISBN 978-90-5155-032-0
- Thor, Lars, "Legend i Glas" (1982), Liber, ISBN 91-38-90173-0