Wilhelm Kåge

Algot Wilhelm Kåge (6 March 1889 - 25 November 1960)[1] was a Swedish artist and designer, mainly known as a ceramic designer and as the artistic leader of the Gustavsberg porcelain factory.

Wilhelm Kåge (left) and Stig Lindberg, ca 1938

Kåge studied decorative painting at Tekniska skolan in Stockholm and later for the painter Carl W. Wilhelmson in Gothenburg, Johan Rodhe in Copenhagen and at Plakatschule in Munich, where he learnt graphic techniques.[2]

His early career was dedicated to advertising and the production of posters, but his best known work was in ceramics, begun when he was appointed artistic leader of Gustavsberg in 1917, remaining there until 1949, when he was succeeded by Stig Lindberg.[3] He was presented with the Prince Eugen Medal for design that same year.[4]

The focus of Kåge's early ceramic designs, as of much of Swedish design of this period was on practical solutions to social issues, an example of which was his Praktika (1933), a simply designed and stackable set of tableware aimed at working-class families.[5] Praktika was a commercial failure, as the intended buyers preferred more traditional and ornate products.[6]

Kåge's most commercially successful design was the green-glazed Argenta earthenware with decorations in silver, that was produced in many shapes and with many different surface designs.[7]

Notes
  1. Lundgren p. 743
  2. Lundgren p. 743 f
  3. Lundgren p. 744
  4. "Prins Eugen Medaljen" (PDF). Retrieved 14 February 2015.
  5. Lundgren p. 744
  6. Lundgren p. 744; Lärkner, p. 186
  7. Lundgren p. 744
gollark: If we make it a *law* that the API does that, it *cannot* not do that, since that would be illegal.
gollark: We should legally require all this sort of API to take a `term` object as input.
gollark: Just do `local i`, that should declare it.
gollark: I assumed you did. You probably should have.
gollark: Oh, did you not declare `i` before?

References
  • Lundgren, Tyra: "Kåge, Wilhelm", in: Svenskt biografiskt lexikon, Vol. 21, pp. 743–745.
  • Lärkner, Bengt: "1900-1950", in: Konst och visuell kultur i Sverige 1810-2000, Stockholm: Signum, 2007, pp. 137–222.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.