This article was written by an unknown author and published in Svensk Guldsmedstidning. Translated by Fern Scott, 2024.
There is no doubt that with his strict silver, his considerable technical skill, his profound knowledge, his consistency, his perseverance and his boldness, Nilsson made an era-defining contribution to Swedish silver. With these highly favourable words about Wiwen Nilsson's life's work, Brita Palm, BA concludes her three-credit bachelor of arts thesis in art history, which she presented at Uppsala University in May 1965.
Svensk Guldsmedstidning (Journal of Swedish Goldsmiths) in issue 12/65 presented a three-credit thesis by another young art historian in Uppsala, Björn Hedstrand. He had studied altar silver, created by Jacob Ängman, Erik Fleming, Wiwen Nilsson, Sigurd Persson and Sven Arne Gillgren. We paused with his analysis of the latter's production, among other reasons, partly due to Hedstrand naming Gillgren as "the silversmith who displayed the most varied communion sets".
Valuable interest from art historians
For us, it is a very fortunate development that silver is being recognised by art historians. If art historians become interested in the aesthetic values of silver, this can lead to a greater public interest in the art of goldsmithing. With the help of young academics, the art of goldsmithing can take the place it rightly deserves alongside painting, sculpture and the other artistic expressions of our time. Sigurd Persson developed this in issue 8/65, where he wrote, among other things, à propos Björn Hedstrand's thesis: “There is a need for good critics and writers who can bring the values of contemporary artistic goldsmithing to life and who can analyse and comment on the various individual efforts in an interesting and profound way.”
The State Scholarship Recipient!
We are particularly pleased that Brita Palm has dedicated her thesis to the 67-year-old master from Lund. Not least because ever since Wiwen Nilsson was nominated as one of the State’s one hundred artist scholarship recipients, the journal has entertained the idea of presenting our profession's first scholarship holder in greater detail. We have covered the frequently occurring announcements of Wiwen Nilsson's new commissions from churches, the University of Gothenburg, and we have occasionally reported on commissions from various city councils and guilds, but there has never been a comprehensive presentation. It was therefore particularly timely and welcome that Brita Palm's 34-page stenciled thesis was published.
Learned from his father first
Brita Palm begins by sketching the contours of Wiwen Nilsson's life. He first learned the craft from his father, Anders Nilsson, in Lund, who owned a renowned goldsmith's workshop with traditions dating back to the 18th century. He continued his studies in Hanau am Main in 1913-1914 and 1921-21, at Teknisk Selskabs Skoler in Copenhagen, and worked as a chiseler in Georg Jensen's workshop. In 1924 he was in Paris, where he spent "three months studying in museums, mainly medieval, archaic and primitive art, then three months in the library of the Louvre to plough through literature on the Middle Ages and its silver art, then another three months in a museum". In Paris he met another Swede, Gösta Adrian-Nilsson known as GAN, who became the pioneer of abstract art in Sweden. GAN introduced him to the purist ideas of post-Cubist Paris and he learned Cubist model drawing.
By the time he took over his father's workshop in 1928, he was a well-known silversmith both in the Nordic countries and internationally. His first public exhibition was at the Jubilee Exhibition in Gothenburg in 1923. He had won a gold medal in Paris in 1925 with one of his multi-edged cups, and his exhibitions in Chicago and New York in 1927 had both been highly successful.
Many awards
In 1955, the Malmö Museum held a retrospective exhibition of works by GAN and "The Stalwart Silver Soldier", which highlighted the similarities between the two artists. Later public recognition of his art included the first Gregor Paulsson statuette from the Swedish Crafts Association in 1955, the large gold medal from the Swedish Jewelers' and Goldsmiths' Association in 1956 and the Prince Eugen Medal in 1958.
The beginning of Wiwen Nilsson's style
Brita Palm continues: "Wiwen Nilsson's production is very rich. He masters the art of providing the most disparate silver objects a design that is both dignified and full of tension.
Nilsson's first objects, made before his studies abroad, are generally of a softer character, often with slightly curved profiles. In 1923, he exhibited silver objects for everyday use. During the 1920s, he developed the basic geometric shape, the polyhedron – the most typical being the hexagonal cup - which he varied and applied to all kinds of vessels. He created several coffee pots, one with a completely straight hexagonal body, another in the shape of a narrow truncated hexagonal pyramid, a design he also applied to communion cups. He also used geometric shapes such as the circle and the sphere. A hemisphere can, for example, form the base or lid of a jug or goblet.
The primary function of silver cutlery is that of a tool. Until Nilsson developed his bold functionalist cutlery in 1930, all that was available was silver cutlery in the traditional rococo-revival design of the 19th century.
A revolutionary jewellery artist
Despite its new form, cutlery is based on centuries of experience, which can not be said of Nilsson's jewellery. There was nothing like it when the collection was first launched in 1930. The most important element is large rock crystals set in pure silver. Nilsson had made gold jewellery before, but his use of silver and a stone as inexpensive as rock crystal was nothing short of revolutionary. A piece of jewellery where the material was unadorned and the intrinsic aesthetic value was the essence, was a rarity.
The cross in Lund Cathedral is "Nilsson's most important work"
Nilsson's church silver, with its sleek form, seemed to fit in with the new concept of liturgy and church space. From around 1925 he made a series of altar crosses, a processional cross, a crosier, a series of altar candlesticks and vases, communion silver and bishop's crosses. There are several variations of altar crosses. The most common is the cross with rock crystals. The base and arms of the cross are made of silver set with step-cut rock crystals. The clear stones are gently neutral in the serious church space. The large facets reflect calm, clear rays of light. The use of large gemstones, typically associated with secular decorative art, and their success in creating a measured frame, testifies to Nilsson's respect for the material's original and unaltered characteristics.
An altar cross of a slightly different character is the one on the High Altar in the Lund Cathedral, created in 1964. It is tremendously powerful, but at the same time gently reverent. It is probably Nilsson's "finest" work.
Figurative representations appear in another type of creation, Nilsson's heraldic works. He created coats of arms as "decorations" on trophies and similarly for guild regalia, for example for Knutsgillet in Lund or for the Chancellor's chain at Gothenburg University. The sharply cut and flat reliefs, which he achieved by riveting the layers on top of each other, are not only strictly logical according to Nilsson's principles, but also correspond to modern heraldic ideas.
Strict geometric style
Wiwen Nilsson's silver is usually characterised by the words angular and stereometric, firm and austere, purist and simple, dynamic and tension-filled, and a few other succinct expressions.
He applies a strict geometric style that has no equivalent in earlier Swedish silversmithing. He creates smooth, undecorated surfaces that intersect at sharp angles. The surfaces take the form of geometric shapes and the entire body becomes a three-dimensional polygon with the same volume as a closed architectural structure. The surface is treated to enhance the true whiteness of the silver. The surface is polished in such a way that the small scratches from the grinding tool run parallel, creating a characteristic surface texture. The "longitudinal direction" of the surface emphasises the interplay of the perpendicular surfaces. All ornamentation is superfluous, and the form and structure alone are impressive enough. On the surface, this silver has a strikingly simple structure, but from a technical point of view, the mathematical precision requires a highly complex treatment and considerable skill.
Nilsson's jewellery follows modern art, not current fashion
Apart from folk costume jewellery, Lapland silver and selected Art Nouveau jewellery, there was hardly any indigenous jewellery tradition in Sweden in the 1920s. The tradition of costume jewellery was entirely continental and closely linked to fashion trends. There was some delay due to the economic value of precious metals. It can also be linked to the affective value and sentimentality of jewellery. Since the 19th century, the floral style has prevailed. The small format with minute details is the most common.
Consequently, the category of jewellery represented by Nilsson's 1930 collection did not exist in Europe in the 1920s. It follows the prevailing style of modern art. His materials are mainly silver and rock crystal.
Ecclesiastical and profane crosses
Nilsson's cross-shaped jewellery is among the most interesting of its kind. This is not only because of their construction. But can also be seen as a contribution to the debate about whether the cross is sacred or not. The question of the symbolic value of the cross is primary in relation to the cross as an aesthetic phenomenon. The artist regards both the art form as well as the silver as sacred objects. He says in an interview that the cross has the "simplest and at the same time most powerful dynamic expression" he knows. According to Nilsson, the cross is neither made specifically for profane nor for sacred use. In reality, these belong to both women and men of the church. It also happens that a cross made in duplicate belongs to both categories at the same time. Conventional wisdom has it that jewellery should adorn a woman. The most original piece is in the form of a pendant, worn for symbolic protection. The cross is still worn in the same way.
Nilsson made crosses for both ecclesiastical and secular use. The design principle of the cross is a little different from that of the other pendants. A stone in a bezel hanging from a heavy chain is the dominant category. He has also experimented with rigid bracelets, for example with a single magnificent stone, or precise circular rings with a stone in a high setting. He has also devoted himself to tiaras, the design of which can be a challenge in our democratic society. The above- mentioned categories of jewellery were part of the collection from 1930 and were still in production in the 1960s.
Flower brooches full of life
Production has been expanded somewhat during the 1950s and the 1960s. Among other things, Nilsson has created a group of brooches with Eastern inspiration. These are made of gold and with the same planar technique as the reliefs of the altar cross of Lund Cathedral. The collection of motifs is mainly from the Japanese visual world, for example a branch with cherry blossom or a resting hind.
A Hong Kong painting, possibly painted in the 10th century, is the inspiration for a silver goose from 1962. Nilsson also drew these brooches with the help of a compass and a ruler. The flowers, when unfolded, have a precise circular outline. Despite the graceful line of the contour, the flowers here are more vigorous than their European equivalents. The smooth clean surfaces, the uncomplicated line of the contour and the solid heavy material appear cohesive and can hardly be compared to ornate frilly flower brooches from France and Switzerland.
In the first sensational collection, no single piece of jewellery was like the other. The artist has since composed a multitude of variations on this theme. But since these are all created by hand and the result of the artist’s ideas and drive, there is no such thing as duplicates. The large monumental pieces of jewellery are generally made to order. The 1930 collection was created entirely on the artist’s own initiative and was the result of an intuition to apply his world- philosophical ideas to a smaller format as well.
The collection was exhibited at NK in the spring of 1931. It was sold there and in another Stockholm store. In the USA, Nilsson's silver was exhibited together with Orrefors glass in New York. It was enthusiastically received.
It is clear that Nilsson's corpus silver paved the way for the jewellery. Official recognition came in 1930 when Nationalmuseum bought two of his creations. But knowledge of Nilsson's jewellery has hardly reached the wider public outside Lund and Skåne.
