Swedish Glass

On 25 April, 2003, in the Apollo Hall (Room No. 260) of the Winter Palace opened an exhibition prepared by the State Hermitage Museum jointly with the Consulate General of Sweden in St. Petersburg, the Swedish Institute and the Museum Vida. Princess Victoria, Heiress to the Swedish Throne, took part in the ceremony of the opening of the exhibition which became one of Sweden’s gifts for the 300th Anniversary of St. Petersburg and part of the Swedish Week program.

72 objects displayed in the exhibit represent the best creations of Swedish art glass masters from the end of the 19th century to our days.
Sweden has centuries-long traditions of glass making. First furnaces for glass production were built there in the 12th century. In the 18th century, most of the glass factories were concentrated in the south-west province Smaland. The largest of them was founded in Kosta in 1742.

The 1920s was the peak of Sweden’s art glass industry, associated first of all with the factories in Kosta and Orrefors. The artists Simon Gate (1883-1945) and Edvard Hald (1883-1980) who joined the Orrefors works in 1916 were seeking new creative uses of the material. Gate proposed the new Grail technique. The vase Valkyries showed in the exhibit is one of his first creations in this technique. The vase by Ulrike Hidman Wallin shows that the masters of Kosta and Orrefors are still employing it.

Contemporary artists carry on the tradition expressed in the Orrefors slogan of the 1920s, Beautiful Things for Everyday Life. The creations of Ulrike Hidman Wallin, Kjell Engman, Monike Backstrom, Goran Warff, Jan Juhanson and one of the best masters, Bertil Wallin, are highly original. Industrial design has become the professional credo of many Swedish glass artists, including Ann Walstrom and Lena Backstrom.

Though the factories of Smaland, Orrefors, Kosta and Boda, have now joined into one enterprise, they carefully preserve their individual styles.
The Swedish party published a full-color illustrated catalogue of the exhibition in two languages.
The show is prepared by the West European Art Department of the State Hermitage Museum, its curators are Tamara V. Rappe, assistant director research at the West European Art Department, and Yelena A. Anisimova, custodian of West European glass.

More

Georgy V. Vilinbakhov, Deputy Director Research of the State Hermitage Museum and Princess Victoria, Heiress to the Swedish Throne opening the exhibition

At the exhibition

Yelena Anisimova, custodian of West European glass