Anders Bruno Liljefors
Covered by droit de suite
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a large stoneware vase, Gustavsberg studio, Sweden early 1950s.
Scratched decoration with animals and fish in dark blue/black against a grey and green glazed ground. Signed A.B.L with the studio mark and imprinted stamp GUSTAVSBERG, height 29,5 cm.
Provenance
Bought in the early 1950s, thence by descent.
Exhibitions
Similar works were included in Anders Bruno Liljefors' premier exhibition at Nordiska Kompaniet, Stockholm 1952. The largest pieces were turned by his young colleague Dan Malmberg.
Literature
Arthur Hald (ed), FORM, Svenska Slöjdföreningens tidskrift, 1952, nr 2, see p 46.
Designer
Ceramicist and painter Anders Bruno Liljefors studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts from 1945 to 1947. He worked at Gustavsberg's Studio during the periods 1947-53 and 1955-57, as well as at his own studios in Roslagen and in Blekinge. Liljefors started at the Gustavsberg factory as a handyman, but his talent was quickly noticed by Wilhelm Kåge, who, after just a few weeks, provided Liljefors with his own studio in the Studio where he primarily worked with stoneware. Soon, Liljefors had his own turner, Dan Malmborg, and together they developed the rustic grey-green stoneware that became his breakthrough. His first solo exhibition was at Nordiska Kompaniet in Stockholm in 1952. It was a success, with most pieces sold. In 1955, he conducted the first experimental trials with sand casting, which attracted significant media attention when presented in the factory's shop on Birger Jarlsgatan in Stockholm. Writers were surprised, puzzled, delighted, and sceptical; terms like "Ceramic Neo-Brutalism" were coined, some saw new possibilities within architecture, while others were less impressed by the collection. These primitive and bold forms were nonetheless groundbreaking, and the Swedish stoneware tradition was thereby energised to develop in new directions. In 1961, Liljefors received the first Kåge Scholarship for his "strongly personal and refreshingly innovative style". During the 1960s, he carried out around 15 public decorations, ranging from minor decorations to entire walls.
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