A Wilhelm Kåge 'Farsta' stoneware jar and cover, Gustavsberg studio 1960.
Height 27,8 cm.
Small chip to base rim.
Swedish private collection
Wilhelm Kåge pride was the ‘Farsta’ series of unique vessels made of heavy stoneware with carved surfaces and earth coloured decorative glazes. The clay was taken from the Farsta bay area very near the Gustavsberg pottery. He began experimenting with the Farsta line of studio ceramics already in the 1920’s. Art historians and collectors today consider the Farsta pieces the culmination of Wilhelm Kåge’s artistic production.
Wilhelm Kåge was a Swedish artist, painter, and ceramicist. Between 1917 and 1949, he worked as artistic director at Gustavsberg porcelain factory.
Kåge studied at Valand konstskola in Gothenburg and later in Copenhagen, where he got to know artist Gösta Adrian-Nilsson (GAN) and became familiar with modern art. He studied graphic art in Munich and began his artistic career by designing posters for theaters and exhibitions. When Gustavsberg needed new products for the home Exhibition at Liljevalch in 1917, Kåge was hired. He developed 30 different tableware, colorful faience, stoneware, and series such as Carrara, Surrea, and Våga. In 1942, Kåge developed Gustavsberg's studio together with designer Stig Lindberg. The studio became an aesthetic laboratory for objets d'art.
At the Stockholm Exhibition in 1930, Kåge presented Gustavsberg's future sales success "Argenta", a series of objet d'art glazed mainly in green but also in red, blue, brown, and celadon green and painted with various silver decorations according to Kåge's sketches.
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