Hans Hedberg; Independent obit ('ceramic fruit-grower')
Hyfler/Rosner
'Ceramic fruit-grower'
The Independent
15 May 2007
Emmanuel Cooper
Hans Hedberg, sculptor: born Köpmanholmen, Sweden May 25
1917; twice married (one son); died Cannes, France 27 March
2007.
One of the more frustrating aspects of ceramics in Britain
is the rare opportunity to see work by artists from
overseas, hence the absence of any meaningful commentary
around the highly visual and accomplished work of the
distinguished Swedish-born sculptor Hans Hedberg.
Not only was Hedberg an internationally respected sculptor
but, unusually, he worked in clay. He was known as the
Swedish "ceramic fruit-grower": his large-scale fruit and
vegetables, which include naturally modelled pumpkins,
apples, lemons, grapes and plums finished in brightly
coloured stoneware, are larger than life, familiar in many
respects except for their monumental size. In many ways, his
work reflects a deep feeling for nature cultivated in the
heady, nourishing air of the South of France, where he
lived, while his bravura style owed something to Surrealism.
There was little in Hedberg's background to suggest his
future lay in working with clay. He was born in
Köpmanholmen, 300 miles north of Stockholm, into a wealthy
family whose fortune lay in wood and paper; as a child
Hedberg, encouraged by his mother, was more involved in
painting than the family business. After serving in the army
during the Second World War he headed south to study art,
spending time at the Royal Danish Academy, Copenhagen, and
the Académie Colarossi in Paris, before settling in Capri,
then something of an artist's retreat with larger than life
personalities such as the wealthy art collector Peggy
Guggenheim and the writer Alberto Moravia adding to the
exotic air. However, far from painting, and much to his own
surprise, Hedberg found himself drawn to the island's
pottery tradition and he started to make pots, beginning a
lifetime obsession with clay.
Early pieces were inspired by the local folk pottery, but,
aware of his technical limitations, he spent two years at
the highly formal atmosphere of the Istituto d'Arte della
Ceramica in Faenza, where he received a classical training
in tin-glazed earthenware known as faience. In the late
Forties he settled in the South of France at Biot, an
ancient pottery village beautifully situated on the top of a
hill overlooking the Mediterranean, near Vallauris, where
Picasso was decorating pots and reinvigorating a moribund
craft. Friendships with Picasso, Matisse, Léger and Cocteau
put him in touch with the latest ideas. For a few months
Marc Chagall came to work with him, but it was not a
success, as Hedberg found the Russian artist too timid.
Hedberg's output was essentially that of a sculptor, his
work including figurative reliefs for churches and more
abstract murals finished with rich colour. A commission for
the Faculty of Science at Marseilles University included
Cubist planes and linear patterns reflecting both biological
and atomic structures.
Reluctant to stick to one style, Hedberg abandoned
traditional modelling in favour of a more monumental
approach, preferring to prepare forms and cast them in
moulds, and to develop brightly coloured glazes and enamels.
It was in the Sixties and Seventies that he started to
develop a bold new, highly distinctive approach, producing
the highly symbolic "Egg" series, some of which are 90cm
tall, a daunting technical and artistic achievement.
He went on to make the no less symbolic "Apple" series as
well as other giant fruit with quasi-naturalistic finishes
in deep purples, bright oranges and soft reds. Shown in
their ripe and fulsome state, Hedberg's forms were
distinctively his. Such assertive forms contrasted with the
more tenuous shapes of sea anemones.
Regular participation in the Ceramic Biennale in Vallauis
and other important exhibitions helped establish his
reputation and his work is included in many international
collections. However, it is in his native Sweden that he was
most honoured, with a museum dedicated to him and his work
at Örnsköldsvik.
Brad Ferguson
<rel...@rcn.com> wrote:
> He was known as the
> Swedish "ceramic fruit-grower"
There's probably an important difference between a ceramic fruit-grower
and a ceramic-fruit grower, but my eyes just glazed over.
Constant Irritant
> There's probably an important difference between a ceramic fruit-grower
> and a ceramic-fruit grower, but my eyes just glazed over.
I wonder why the obit didn't list a next of kiln?