Timeline

1890s
A young Wiwen Nilsson with his father, Anders, his mother, Karolina, and his sister Edith.

1897

Karl Edvin Nilsson is born on May 19, 1897 in Copenhagen, Denmark, where his father Anders Nilsson was working at the time. He will be known by his childhood nickname ‘Wiwen’ for most of his life.

Wiwen Nilsson is the second child born to Karolina Nilsson, née Jonasson, and Anders Nilsson. The Nilsson family return to Lund, Sweden, on November 25, 1897, shortly after Wiwen Nilsson’s birth.

1899

Wiwen Nilsson’s father, Anders Nilsson, assumes ownership of the J.P. Hasselgren company, the gold- and silversmith’s workshop where Anders Nilsson had once been an apprentice. The name of the firm becomes A. Nilsson, Successor to J.P. Hasselgren, Lund. Newspaper reports suggest that Wiwen Nilsson starts working at his father’s workshop at 14 years old.

1908

Anders Nilsson is appointed Royal Court Jeweler to the Swedish Royal Court.
1910s
Wiwen Nilsson, 1918.

1913–14

Wiwen Nilsson enrols at the Königliche Zeichenakademie (The Royal Drawing Academy) in Hanau, Germany, where he takes classes in freehand drawing, life drawing, engraving and chiseling techniques.

His education is interrupted by the outbreak of World War I and he returns to Lund where he continues learning the craft, working in his father’s workshop.

1916–17

Wiwen Nilsson travels to Copenhagen to continue his studies at Det Tekniske Selskabs Skole (known today as Copenhagen Technical University).
Wiwen Nilsson’s workshop.

1917-18

Wiwen Nilsson does his military service as a mounted signalist at The Bergslagen Artillery Regiment in Stockholm, Sweden.

1919

Wiwen Nilsson enrolls as a private student for five months with the artist Vilhelm Waldorff in Copenhagen, perfecting his chiseling skills. He appears to have been a gifted and eager student; Waldorff describes him as “exceptionally nimble and interested”.

1919

Wiwen Nilsson presents his qualifying pieces to Fabriks- och Hantverksföreningen (Factory and Crafts Association) in Lund. These works include a vase, a tea strainer with a cup and two brooches. They represent the culmination of his technical education, and he is admitted as a ‘journeyman’ of his trade. In Lund, Wiwen Nilsson is awarded the Sveriges Hantverksorganisation (Swedish Craft Organisation) “Great” Silver medal. The praise that he receives stands in stark contrast to the critique his work would go on to receive four years later at Jubileumsutställningen i Göteborg (Gothenburg Tercentennial Jubilee Exposition), Sweden.
1920s
Wiwen Nilsson’s entry card to the Gothenburg Tercentennial Jubilee Exposition, 1923.

1920–21

Wiwen Nilsson returns to Hanau to complete his education at the newly renamed Staatliche Zeichenakademie (National Drawing Academy). Here, Wiwen Nilsson befriends fellow student Wilhelm Wagenfeld, later a Bauhaus student, who would go on to become a celebrated designer. Their friendship continues after they finish their studies, including regular letter correspondence.

After the school year ends in September 1921, Wiwen Nilsson starts training at the jeweler Chr. Kissling in Hanau for three months.

Wiwen Nilsson visits museums and exhibitions in German cities including Munich, Nuremberg, Dresden and Berlin, on his way back to Lund. Wiwen Nilsson writes travel journals which are published in Svensk Hantverkstidning (Swedish Crafts Magazine).
The Gothenburg Tercentennial Jubilee Exposition, 1923.

1923

Wiwen Nilsson makes his debut with designs for his father’s company at Jubileumsutställningen i Göteborg (The Gothenburg Tercentennial Jubilee Exposition), Sweden. His contribution receives scathing criticism. One writer describes his work as composed of “meaningless cone shapes”.

Despite the harsh criticism, there is some support for Wiwen Nilsson’s new artistic language. The artist Ernst Norlind describes his work as “boldly tackling problems of modern form”. Another supporter is Erik Wettergren, the head of The Arts and Crafts department at the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm. His enthusiasm for Wiwen Nilsson’s work prompts Nordiska Kompaniet in Stockholm to buy the entirety of Wiwen Nilsson’s exhibit and hold an exhibition later that year. Nordiska Kompaniet – today a renowned luxury department store – was at the time one of Stockholm’s most important venues for exhibiting artists.
Wiwen Nilsson sculpting in Arvid Källström’s atelier in Paris, 1924.

1924

Wiwen Nilsson travels to Paris, France, where he quickly becomes part of the artistic milieu, which includes artists like Fernand Léger. Wiwen Nilsson befriends several Swedish artists, some studying under Fernand Léger at the Académie Moderne. A number of artists – including Isaac Grünewald, Gösta Adrian-Nilsson (known as GAN) and Arvid Källström – live in the Académie Moderne building. Wiwen Nilsson also lives there for a period of time. Wiwen Nilsson forms an important bond with GAN, one that would last a lifetime. It was a friendship based on a shared philosophical and artistic vision.
At Källström’s home in Paris, from front left and clock-wise: Arvid Källström, his wife, Elin, Erik Olson, Wiwen Nilsson in the back, Gösta Adrian-Nilsson (GAN), and Jules Schyl, in the front, 1924.

Wiwen Nilsson attends classes at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, the prestigious art school whose former pupils include artists such as Balthus, Alexander Calder and Louise Bourgeois. Here, he explores life drawing and anatomy, producing stylised drawings which, together with drawings he made earlier in Hanau, would inspire the design of the sculptures, reliefs and planar geometric brooches he will later create.
Sculptures, 1920s.

1925

GAN and Wiwen Nilsson return to Lund to participate in a joint exhibition at the Skånska Konstmuseum (Art Museum of Skåne) at the University of Lund. GAN’s paintings are shown alongside Wiwen Nilsson’s works in silver and gold.
The Swedish display at the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes (The International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts) in Paris, 1925.

The A. Nilsson company exhibits several pieces at the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes (International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts) in Paris, 1925. Wiwen Nilsson is awarded the Médaille d'Or (Gold Medal) for Arts and Crafts. The President of the Swedish Society of Crafts and Design Gregor Paulsson curated the exhibition. This was the first of many exhibitions led by Gregor Paulsson in which Wiwen Nilsson would take part.
Drawing on paper, 1925.

1927

Wiwen Nilsson assumes ownership of the A. Nilsson company from his father, meaning he is free to express his own artistic vision.

As a result of the Swedish delegation’s success at the exhibition in Paris in 1925, Gregor Paulsson is approached by the acting director of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, USA, to curate an exhibition at the museum featuring Swedish decorative arts. Gregor Paulsson selects Wiwen Nilsson’s work to be a part of the exhibition, listed under “A. Nilsson, Successor to J.P. Hasselgren, Lund”. The exhibition receives critical acclaim. Headlines reporting on its success include ‘Beauty and Usefulness form New Alliance’ and ‘Real Artistry at Moderate Cost’, marking a new direction for arts and crafts.

The exhibition travels to other renowned institutions in the USA including The Minneapolis Institute of Art and The Art Institute of Chicago. In a 1928 exhibition review in the Chicago Evening Post, the art critic Charles Victor Knox writes that Wiwen Nilsson’s designs have “come closer to the essential meaning of modernism than any other silversmith”.
Wiwen Nilsson’s workshop.

1928

Wiwen Nilsson is appointed Royal Court Jeweler to the Swedish Royal Court.
Wiwen Nilsson photographed in 1933 in front of his diplomas from the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris, 1925, and the 1930 Stockholm Exhibition, Stockholm, Sweden.

1929

Wiwen Nilsson exhibits at Kulturen in Lund. In an exhibition review, his silverworks are described as “fully-fledged works of art”.
1930s
Wiwen Nilsson holding rock crystals.

1930

Stockholmsutställningen (The Stockholm Exhibition), in Stockholm, is a historically important exhibition promoting Swedish modern aesthetics. The show constitutes a breakthrough for functionalism – a doctrine rooted in the belief that ‘form follows function’. Stockholmsutställningen is organised by Gregor Paulsson and the Swedish Society of Crafts and Design. Wiwen Nilsson’s contribution includes, among other things, a cutlery set, “designed and completed at the request of Gregor Paulsson”.
Wine jug, exhibited at the 1930 Stockholm Exhibition.

The exhibition marks the debut of Wiwen Nilsson’s groundbreaking rock crystal jewellery designs and his artistic acceptance in Sweden. An unnamed critic hails his “spartan disdain” for ornamentation, celebrating the precision of his craftsmanship. The writer and art critic Gotthard Johansson praises Wiwen Nilsson’s work, suggesting that he has “driven simplicity to its peak but also to the height of refinement”. The Nationalmuseum in Stockholm acquires a vase and a tea box from the collection, an important recognition of Wiwen Nilsson as an artist.

Wiwen Nilsson also participates in the avant-garde exhibition Art Concret (Concrete Art) in Stockholm, organised by the artist and art critic Otto Gustaf Carlsund, which takes place during Stockholmsutställningen. Alongside Swedish modernists such as GAN and Wiwen Nilsson, international artists such as Fernand Léger, Jean Arp, László Moholy-Nagy and Theo van Doesburg also exhibited. Art Concret receives harsh criticism, but today it is celebrated as an important modernist exhibition. Wiwen Nilsson contributed a sculpture titled Månen över Paris (The Moon Over Paris), 1925.

In the 1930s Wiwen Nilsson is represented in Chicago at The Swedish Arts and Crafts Company, a permanent department for the sale of Swedish arts and crafts. Tage Palm was the director of the department.
Rock crystal necklaces, designs from the 1930s.

1931

Wiwen Nilsson is part of the travelling exhibition Decorative Metalwork and Cotton Textiles in the USA and Canada. The exhibition is shown at several important institutions such as The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Wiwen Nilsson also exhibits at Dorland House in London, UK.
Cutlery set.

1933

Wiwen Nilsson’s work is exhibited at The Swedish Exposition at the Chicago World’s Fair – A Century of Progress International Exposition. Tage Palm is the exhibition general for the Swedish Pavilion.

The same year, Wiwen Nilsson takes part in an exhibition in Riga, Latvia, organised by Svenska Slöjdföreningen (Swedish Society of Crafts and Design). The exhibition travels around the Baltic region, visiting: Tallin, Estonia; Tartu, Estonia; and Kaunas, Lithuania.
At the Art Concret exhibition in 1930, featuring international artists like Fernand Léger, Amédée Ozenfant, and Piet Mondrian. Wiwen Nilsson’s sculpture 'The Moon over Paris' (1925) stands in the centre of the space.

1934

After the success at Stockholmsutställningen in 1930, Wiwen Nilsson exhibits jewellery at the XIX Biennale di Venezia (19th Venice Biennale), Italy.
Rock crystal bracelet.

1935

Wiwen Nilsson participates in the Exposition Universelle de 1935 (World Exhibition of 1935) in Brussels, Belgium.

1936

Wiwen Nilsson participates in an exhibition in Vienna, Austria, organised by Svenska Slöjdföreningen (Swedish Society of Crafts and Design).
Wiwen Nilsson’s workshop, 1953.

1937

Wiwen Nilsson participates at the Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne (International Exposition of Art and Technology in Modern Life) in Paris.

1938

Wiwen Nilsson participates in a group exhibition at the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague, Czechoslovakia.
Wiwen Nilsson holding a communion wine jug.

1939

Wiwen Nilsson exhibits at the New York World’s Fair, titled The World of Tomorrow.
1940s
Wiwen Nilsson holding what will become the octagonal bowl in the foreground, 1953.

1940

Wiwen Nilsson’s work is exhibited at the Orrefors Galleries in Manhattan, New York. This cements his status abroad, with headlines in newspapers highlighting his “international following”. At the Orrefors Galleries, Wiwen Nilsson’s works are exhibited and sold exclusively alongside Orrefors glass, and sculptures by Carl Milles. Wiwen Nilsson receives orders from around the world, including a request from a Californian company to import bridal crowns.

As World War II threatens supply chains and disrupts trade, the Orrefors Galleries is forced to close its doors after only a few years in business.
Bracelet and brooch.

1941

Nordiska Kompaniet holds an exhibition of Wiwen Nilsson’s works. In a review in the Swedish daily newspaper Sydsvenska Dagbladet, Erik Wettergren, who would later become the director of the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, describes Wiwen Nilsson as the “herald of pure simplicity”, announcing that from “the circle, the cube, the cylinder, the cone, he has formed his syntax”.
Cocktail shaker, goblets and tray.

1945

In the company of fellow creatives Johanna Van Ryn, Franz Bergmann, Margaret Craver and Adda Husted-Andersen, Wiwen Nilsson exhibits work at the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, USA.
Wiwen Nilsson in his workshop holding a water jug. Pictured behind, an altar cross in silver, rock crystal, and ebony made in 1950.

1948

Wiwen Nilsson exhibits at the Danish designer company Georg Jensen Inc., in New York.

1949

Wiwen Nilsson participates at an international exhibition at the Kunstgewerbemuseum, Zurich, Switzerland.
1950s
A craftsman in Wiwen Nilsson’s workshop with animal brooches inspired by East Asian art, 1950s.

Wiwen Nilsson starts creating brooches inspired by East Asian art. Wiwen Nilsson’s interest in East Asian culture began during his earlier studies in libraries and museums in Paris, aided by a visit to the Museo d’Arte Orientale Venezia (Venice Museum of Oriental Art), Italy, which opened to the public in 1928.

Wiwen Nilsson also starts creating planar geometric brooches during this time, works based on his drawings from his time in Hanau (1920–1921) and Paris (1924–1925).

1951

Wiwen Nilsson participates at the IX Triennale di Milano (9th Milan Triennale), Italy, where he is awarded the Medaglia d’Oro (Gold Medal).

His work is also on display at The Tea Centre in London.
Animal brooches, designed in the 1950s.

1953

Wiwen Nilsson is included in the exhibition Svenskt Silver Idag (Swedish Silver Today) at the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm. Artist and art historian Åke Stavenow writes a review of this exhibition, characterising Wiwen Nilsson as “almost reactionary in his consistent cubism”.

1954

Wiwen Nilsson participates in the X Triennale di Milano (10th Milan Triennale).

Wiwen Nilsson’s work is part of the travelling exhibition Design in Scandinavia, in the USA and Canada from 1954 to 1957.
Wiwen Nilsson with his sculptures.

1955

Building on drawings from the 1920s, Wiwen Nilsson creates a new set of sculptures and reliefs. He presents these new works at H55 International Exhibition of Applied Arts of Housing and the Interior, the world’s fair held in Helsingborg, Sweden.

Malmö Museum, in Malmö, Sweden, organises a joint exhibition of Wiwen Nilsson’s and GAN’s work, curated by the art historian Nils Gösta Sandblad. Wiwen Nilsson exhibits silverware as well as a series of silver reliefs and sculptures in diabase, marble, ivory and labradorite. The exhibition also includes Wiwen Nilsson’s sketches from the 1920s, on display for the first time, intended to show his “artistic starting point”, according to a contemporary review.

Wiwen Nilsson receives the Sydsvenska Dagbladet Culture Prize.

Wiwen Nilsson is awarded the Gregor Paulsson Prize.
Vilande Kvinna (Resting Woman), relief, 1950s.

1956

Wiwen Nilsson participates in an exhibition at Liljevalchs Konsthall (Liljevalchs Art Gallery) in Stockholm, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Konsthantverkarnas Gille (Artisans’ Guild), alongside artists like Carl Malmsten and Märta Måås-Fjetterström. The ten participating artists are selected “for laying the foundation [of] Sweden’s modern arts and crafts and art industry” and are given honorary rooms. Wiwen Nilsson is the youngest of the selected artists.
The exhibition at Malmö Museum in 1955. Among the visitors stands Wiwen Nilsson and his labradorite sculpture, designed in 1955.

During the same year, Wiwen Nilsson is awarded the Jubilee Gold medal by the Swedish Jewellery and Goldsmiths’ Organisation for significant artistic contribution. This is the only time this medal has been awarded by this important arts-and-crafts organisation on the basis of artistic contribution.

At the official state visit by Swedish Prime Minister Tage Erlander to the Soviet Union in 1956, eight objects created by Wiwen Nilsson’s workshop are gifted to the hosts, including First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev and Premier Nikolai Bulganin. Among the gifts is a Byzantine chalice by Wiwen Nilsson.
Relief, 1950s.

1957

Wiwen Nilsson exhibits at Kunstgewerbemuseum (Museum of Decorative Arts) in Zurich, Switzerland.
Wiwen Nilsson holding the 1959 communion vessel.

1958

Wiwen Nilsson develops and patents a new and complex design for setting stones in jewellery. This bezel gives the impression that the stone is hovering above the finger, with the stone set high above the band.

Wiwen Nilsson is awarded the Prince Eugen Medal for artistic merit, conferred by the King of Sweden. Once again Wiwen Nilsson – predominantly an Arts and Crafts practitioner – receives this important award based on artistic merit.

The same year, Wiwen Nilsson participates in the exhibition Formes Scandinaves (Scandinavian Design) at Musée des Arts Décoratifs (Museum of Decorative Arts) in Paris.
The 1959 communion vessel.

1959

Wiwen Nilsson designs an innovative Communion vessel based on studies of religious texts and traditions, and a desire to improve the aesthetics and the hygiene of the Communion service. The design caused controversy in clerical circles, with journalist William Larsson suggesting that Wiwen Nilsson’s Communion vessel was “wholly incompatible” with the ritual of Communion. The Swedish Church would subsequently approve its use.

Wiwen Nilsson exhibits at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
1960s
Wiwen Nilsson with the casket designed for the Swedish King Gustaf VI Adolf, gifted in 1962.

1961

Wiwen Nilsson’s work is exhibited at the International Exhibition of Modern Jewellery 1890–1961 at Goldsmiths’ Hall in London. According to a report in the newspaper Arbetet, Wiwen Nilsson was invited to participate by the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm.
Wiwen Nilsson’s workshop.

1962

In connection with King Gustaf VI Adolf’s eightieth birthday, the Swedish Prime Minister Tage Erlander presents the King with a “Gift from the Nation”, delivered in a casket made by Wiwen Nilsson.
Wiwen Nilsson and the four stages of the creation of the octagonal bowl from a flat silver sheet to the final design.

1965

Wiwen Nilsson’s works are part of the exhibition Swedish Silver at Huis van Zweden (The Swedish House) in Brussels, Belgium.

Wiwen Nilsson receives Svenska Statens Konstnärsbelöning (The Swedish State’s Artist Award).

1967

The museum Kulturen in Lund organises a retrospective of Wiwen Nilsson’s work to mark his seventieth birthday.
1970s
Wiwen Nilsson in the Crypt of Lund Cathedral in Sweden, 1953.

1973

Malmö Museum hosts a retrospective of Wiwen Nilsson’s work.

1974

Wiwen Nilsson passes away on January 8, 1974. His funeral is held in the Crypt of Lunds Domkyrka (Lund Cathedral), Sweden. Gregor Paulsson writes an obituary for Wiwen Nilsson in FORM Magazine, lamenting “there will never be another Wiwen Nilsson”.
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Timeline

1890s

1910s

1920s

1930s

1940s

1950s

1960s

1970s