The Stockholm Industrial Arts Exhibition,1909

The exhibition Konstindustri Utställningen, presenting Swedish crafts grouped into applied arts, home industries and folk arts, opened in Stockholm on 4 June 1909. A complex of whitewashed buildings designed to accommodate the exhibition was laid out among the enormous trees and dark green foliage on the slopes of the Djurgärden (Zoo) on the bank of one of Stockholm’s fjords, the Saltsjön. The temporary buildings erected for the exhibition were designed by the greatest Swedish architect of the age, Ferdinand Böberg, who remained true to his individual style, with motifs reminiscent of Moorish architecture and Venetian Gothic, specked with naturalist elements. The exhibition divided into two main groups: folk art in the strict sense, with traditional forms and colours in their ancient purity, and modernising work in which the designers freely expressed their individuality, inventiveness and taste. The powerful, severe forms characteristic of northern peoples were apparent in some products of the weaving and metalwork industries, while others displayed English or German influence. Of particular note were collective exhibitions in which the companies Licium, Handarbetets Vänner, Hemslöjd Föreningen and Nordiska Kompanie displayed their own works and those of other women’s associations and teaching workshops in their direct or indirect spheres of influence. There were several thousand specimens of weaving, embroidery, sewing and other techniques. The best were the silver boxes and jewellery of Olga Lanner, whose ceramics also excelled, and the fruit bowls and ornamental gates of the metal craft artists Anderson, Färngren and Hallberg. In pottery, the most artistic work was the Paris-based Nils Barck’s à grand feu ware, and products of the two grand old Swedish ceramics works Rörstrand and Gustavsberg. Excellent work displaying artistic individuality was also to be found among the furnishings. Such were the elegant rooms exhibited by Nordiska Möblerings A. B. and Nordiska Kompanie, Jonsson’s dining room with its northern mood, a study by Wallander, and Bergsten’s exhibition hall.

Györgyi K. 'Jegyzetek a stockholmi iparművészeti kiállításról' in: Magyr Iparművészet 1909/6. szám, 202-222.

by Jessica Fehérvári