Represents Sweden at the World Expo in London
This article was written by Rudolf Berner and published in Arbetet. Translated by Fern Scott, 2024.
For almost 40 years, there has always been a reason to write about Lund’s court jeweler and world-renowned silversmith, Wiwen Nilsson. His personal style is so distinctive that his work is always in the news. We would therefore have every reason to include him in our series of reports, "What and how in Lund", but now we have yet another reason to write about him: he has been invited to take part in a highly selective world jewellery exhibition in London. When this remarkable exhibition opens its doors in October, at least one of Wiwen Nilsson's objects will cause a sensation and knock the experts off their mounts when they see - his mountings.
Silversmithing is a very old tradition in Lund, and it is safe to say that Lund was founded on this craft (the minting of coins, which Knut the Great started in Lund when he built the city, is certainly based on this craft). The firm of Wiwen Nilsson is also steeped in tradition; it was founded by his grandfather Johan Petter Hasselgren 114 years ago. Exactly half a century ago, the then 14-year-old Wiwen started out in the workshop, left about a year later for a special academy in Frankfurt am Main and remained there until the First World War broke out. During the war, he stayed in Copenhagen, partly at the Technical University and partly with a chiseler, where he made copper reliefs. As soon as the war was over, he returned to Frankfurt - in the midst of the “Spartacist uprising”. (At least part of his rebellious attitude may have come from this period).
RETURNED WITH A BANG
The return to his homeland came with a bang. He had his first exhibition at the Gothenburg Exhibition in 1923. “At that time there were no plain silver objects anywhere in the world. A bowl, a vase, a casket were not allowed to be what they were – a bowl, a vase or a casket. Rather, these would have the shape of the female body or the shape of a flower bud. So I was thoroughly scolded.”
Wiwen Nilsson is not one to bow down to such things; it is hard to imagine him bowing down to anything other than to form and to true beauty. He continued in this spirit, of course, but there was one person who expressed his enthusiasm - which resulted in NK buying the entire collection and exhibiting it in Stockholm. That enthusiastic person was Erik Wettergren, the recently deceased director of Nationalmuseum.
“A bit later, a Norwegian exhibition came to Stockholm. They appreciated my approach to working with silver, and now it is regarded as highly refined".
“But has your close friendship with GAN influenced your design, if I may use such a word?
"GAN and I have been together since 1924, I have been inspired by him and I have learned a lot from him. But my forms are inspired by an early, almost primitive Romanesque style, albeit with Cubist influences.”
"Here, the writer should sneak in a footnote: GAN, i.e., the Lund-born painter Gösta Adrian-Nilsson, is rightly called 'the father of Swedish Cubism' and was the originator of the radical Cubist movement in Sweden."
DIPLOMAS AND MEDALS
As you walk through the shop and the workshop, you will notice that the walls are literally wallpapered with diplomas of all kinds. But there is also a whole gallery of portraits - from Johannes Collin's relief of J P Hasselgren to photographs of beautiful women whose beauty is further enhanced by special Wiwen jewellery. More significant than the portraits of opera stars, wealthy figures and royalty are the diplomas.
A selection of these may serve as an indication that Wiwen Nilsson's reputation as a silversmith and jeweler "is cherished around the globe": The Stockholm Exhibition in 1930, Chicago in 1933, the Paris Exhibition in 1937, Zurich in 1949, the Milan Triennial in 1951 and 1954, Florence – the city of Benvenuto Cellini – in 1954.
Our famous resident has also won the most prestigious awards at home. He is the first and, as far as we know, the only arts and craftsman to be awarded the Prince Eugen Medal "for outstanding artistic work". But perhaps the most prestigious of all is the gold medal that Governor Hagander presented to Wiwen five years ago at the Swedish Jewelers' and Goldsmiths' Association's jubilee celebration at Stockholm's City Hall: where he was the first to receive the newly established gold medal. Once again, he is the only one who has ever received this award for 'outstanding artistic achievement'.
TENSION WITHIN THE DESIGN
”So, now I am no longer in the resistance phase," he comments on the topic of the certificates of honor he has received.
“But that must mean that it is even harder now. You must renew yourself, create
something new...”
“New is a word that I do not like in this context, it smells of trends. I strive for timeless forms, those that have nothing to do with trends and the "new". What I strive to achieve with my style is to intensify the rhythm and the tension in the proportions. And in that, you are correct. It is harder – it requires a lot more tension".
“I think you have revealed something there, provided an answer to the question of how you keep your forms so damn vital. It is the tension that stimulates you, am I right?”
“Well, one has a goal that one strives to achieve, replies Wiwen and illustrates with a few lines around a rectangle, how, for example, the shape of a piece of jewellery is created during the process of solving the problem of proportions.”
This becomes simultaneously a lesson in observing the difference between creating and copying – a difference that is also reflected in the finished object.
EXPORT TO USA AND ECCLESIASTICAL SILVER
Wiwen Nilsson exported a great deal to the USA until the outbreak of the Second World War, while he, Carl Milles and Orrefors had a permanent exhibition and commercial sales in New York. After the war he did not feel able to or have the time to build up a new organisation.
“So that is when you went forward in a big way with church silver?
“I became, shall we say, more vital in that area, but otherwise that line of work started even before I took over the company from my father in 1928. It was the later Archbishop Eidem, then vicar of Gårdstånga, who ordered a wafer box that he wanted to give to the church as a parting gift. He gave me completely free rein, but had one condition: It must not look like a sugar box! Nor did it become a sugar box," adds Wiwen Nilsson. And we slide into a discussion about sociological aspects and the question of taste, but space does not permit further accounts, so we will just quote Wiwen here: "A jug does not become holy just because one puts a cross on the lid!"
A HAPPY ATMOSPHERE IN THE WORKSHOP
Wiwen Nilsson has around 20 people employed (and employing them gives him plenty of work). If one sits down anywhere in the workshop and speak with the silversmiths, jewelers and engravers, one does not have to ask if they enjoy working there, it can be felt in the atmosphere. The fact that so many of them have been there for so long is a clear sign that they enjoy their work and the stimulating environment that the boss has created. One also gets the feeling that the younger ones will grow old here; it can be heard in their way of thinking about their work and how they take pleasure in crafting Wiwen Nilsson's creations. "What we do here feels very real, and that's what craftsmanship should be!" one of them stated.
Reporter: Rudolf Berner Photo: Kurt Hagblom
