Sven Wejsfelt, a stoneware figurine, Gustavsberg, late 20th century.
Labeled. Pike with green-brown glaze, length 58 cm, on a wooden plinth, total height 16 cm.
Minor wear. Wear and chips to glaze underneath.
Sven Wejsfelt (originally Johansson, 1930-2009) was a Swedish ceramist, freehand potter, and sculptor, active at Rörstrand Porcelain Factory (1946-53) and Gustavsberg Porcelain Factory (1953-2008).
Wejsfelt worked in a classic stoneware tradition with thin thrown shapes and was a master of glazes. He served as a potter for, among others, Gunnar Nylund and Stig Lindberg, but also many other artists such as Hertha Bengtson, Marianne Westman, Sylvia Leuchovius, and Carl-Harry Stålhane. Wejsfelt's first own items were made as private tests during breaks in his work.
His collaboration with Stig Lindberg at Gustavsberg lasted 17 years, until 1970. It was not until 1977 that he became a ceramist under his own name with collections of thrown stoneware and cast fish and animal figures. In 1987, he exhibited with the other Gustavsberg artists in the exhibition Studio Gustavsberg. Wejsfelt often worked in cornflower blue, as well as with rabbit's fur glazes in various colours, magnificent 'sang de boeuf', and delicate blue and pale yellow glazes. Miniatures were his specialty.
Today, Sven Wejsfelt is considered one of the last Swedish ceramists who developed and carried forward the Chinese-founded stoneware tradition that flourished most in Sweden during the 1930s to 1960s. His stoneware is today part of several major museum collections, including the Nationalmuseum, The Cooper-Hewitt Museum in New York, and the ceramic museum in Faenza.
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