An 1973 glass and metal sculpture in the shape of a hot air balloon by Bertil Vallien produced at Åfors and Boda, Sweden
Glass and metal. The frame is made by the metal worker Lars Larsson in Boda. The glass was manufactured at Åfors glassworks. It took about 7-8 months to manufacture the hot air balloon. The hot air balloon was delivered in one piece and mounted on cite in Caroli City, Malmö Sweden. The basket has an electric motor.
Diameter approx. 2.75 m. Total height approx. 4.5 m. Viewing will take place at Acta in Malmö, only via private booking through Maria Granström, Malmö. The buyer is responsible for transport and assembly.
Later light. Not tested for function. Some parts might be missing.
Caroli City, Malmö Sweden
For 39 years, Bertil Vallien's Hot Air Balloon hung in the Caroli shopping center in Malmö, Sweden.
To Caroli City he made two works, of which the hot air balloon is one. The second work was a zeppeliner. Throughout the years, the hot air balloon has fascinated Bertil to the degree that in 1963 he started a rocket and hot air balloon club together with some other artists in Åfors. In 1968, he was on the premiere tour of, "Emillie", Sweden's first hot air balloon ride. After that, there were many flights and a lot of rocket launches in the forests of Småland.
Bertil Vallien was born in 1938 and is one of Sweden's foremost glass artists. Bertil is that Swedish glass artist who has attracted the most attention abroad as well. When he was going to have an exhibition at a gallery on Fifth Avenue in NYC, they closed the street for a while in order to be able to lift his boats through the windows of the gallery.
Bertil Vallien (b. 1938) is a Swedish glass designer and ceramicist. He pursued his studies at Konstfack in Stockholm as well as on study trips to Denmark and the USA. In the 1960s, Vallien worked at Boda glassworks as an assistant to Erik Höglund, and was later linked to Åfors glassworks. Vallien works primarily in glass and has developed a distinctive style of sandcast glass sculptures, often depicting boats and heads. His sculptures have a kind of inner glow that lingers in the memory. Vallien is represented around the world and has been awarded the prize "Visionaries! Award" in 2001. Bertil was married to the artist Ulrica Hydman-Vallien.
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