Ernst Billgren

On June 19, 2010, the wedding took place between Crown Princess Victoria and Daniel Westling, who was appointed Prince and Duke of Västergötland. In connection with the wedding, the newlyweds were honored with wedding gifts from private individuals and companies that were meant to be a reminder of the historic event.
Reijmyre Glassworks in Finspång municipality in Östergötland has been producing hand-blown glass since 1810. From the early 20th century onwards, Reijmyre has employed artists and designers such as Ferdinand Boberg, Alf Wallander, Monica Bratt and Björn Trägårdh, which has resulted in important contributions to Swedish cultural heritage. In recent years, the collaboration with Svenskt Tenn has been an important part of the company's business.
In the wedding present to the crown princess couple, Reijmyre wanted to unite Swedish cultural history and the present, and therefore Ernst Billgren was hired for the artistic design.
Ernst Billgren is considered one of the most significant Swedish artists of our time. In his artistic career, he has worked in a variety of different artistic media that have included painting, sculpture, graphics, film and scenography, in accordance with the Renaissance artist's idea that no artistic expression should be foreign. Billgren is therefore well acquainted with the interface between art, design and crafts. In the borderland between art and handicrafts, Ernst Billgren has become particularly interested in glass as an artistic media. This interest has brought him to Venice and to the tradition that has developed on the island of Murano in the Venetian lagoon. Here, Billgren has learned the foundations of Europe's finest glass tradition, which has resulted in several glass objects.
In the wedding gift for the Crown Princess and Prince Daniel, Ernst Billgren has taken hold of the Venetian tradition and above all the most prestigious object of the time in the form of the chandelier. It is a symbol of the culture-bearing European royal house and aristocracy. Although Billgren is well acquainted with the history and design language of the Venetian chandelier, he has chosen to give it a more contemporary design that is connected to a Swedish tradition. Billgren's chandelier is based on four opaque globes, basic geometric shapes taken from the design language of functionalism, commonly found in public buildings and school halls during the 1930s and onwards. Ernst Billgren's art is certainly associated with the Swedish 'folkhemmet', but not primarily with functionalism. Billgren has introduced kitsch into a strange mixture of cultural historical know-how and mass culture. Up on the globe, he has portrayed four mallards that balance quite confidently. Billgren is well acquainted with the flora and fauna of Swedish nature, which was used extensively by Bruno Liljefors and other 19th-century nature painters. Billgren is not as interested in the "Darwinist" theories, to eat or to be eaten, which fascinated his predecessors. He rather connects to Disney's cartoon world where the animals and plants have been given a human appearance. It is completely in line with the interest in ecology that characterizes our time, where we are today aware of the close connections that exist between human life and our surrounding nature. In his chandelier, Ernst Billgren has had a unique ability to combine a cultural-historical heritage from Renaissance Venice with Swedish nature and a children's family's imaginary world of cartoons into an artistic whole.
At Bukowski's auction, there is now an opportunity to acquire a chandelier of the same model that Reijmyre Glassworks gave to the Crown Princess couple as a wedding gift.