Gunnar Cyrén
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a prototype chandelier, Orrefors, 1960s.
Frame of white metal, hanging glass pendants with pressed decoration in various sizes across multiple tiers. Height 60 cm, diameter 52 cm.
Function not guaranteed.
Provenance
A gift from the designer to the architect Maurice Holland, who curated an exhibition of Cyrén's chandeliers at NK Inredning in Stockholm, 1967.
Thence by descent to the present owner.
More information
Gunnar Cyrén: "In 1967, I held an exhibition of lighting, chandeliers. I knew that when you clean chandeliers, it's a lot of work and hassle. Therefore, I thought that one should try to do something where it was easy to remove the prisms, and then I came up with this trick of making a leaf with holes that sat on a hook. It was very simple. Then I really went for it and made a very large and dominant hook, I thought it should have character.
Now it got a bit too much character. The lamp became like a fruit bud, full of thorns. In a review, Ulf Hård af Segerstad wrote that 'they do not lack character' - that was actually an understatement. I made a more modest hook. These chandeliers ended up in various embassies and other ceremonial buildings around the world."
Designer
Gunnar Cyrén (1931-2013) was a Swedish glass artist, silversmith and industrial designer. He worked for Orrefors glassworks between 1959 and 1970, then designed plastics for a few years and then returned to Orrefors in 1977. Highlights of his design career include "Pop glass" or "Cups with colored legs" (1966-1968) and "The Nobel Service" (1991). Over the years, Gunnar Cyrén has participated in several exhibitions in Sweden and abroad and received the King's scholarship in 1962, the Lunning prize in 1966 and the Prince Eugén medal in 1988. He is appointed professor by the government. In his hometown of Gävle, where he also had a gallery and a gold and silver smithy, he has been honored with his own room at the County Museum.
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