Swedish ceramist Berndt Friberg began his career at Gustavsberg in 1934 as a thrower for the studio's artistic director, Wilhelm Kåge. An exacting perfectionist, Friberg threw all of his pots by hand and discarded anything that did not meet his standard of excellence. He would go on to work at Gustavsberg until his death in 1981, creating exquisite ceramics influenced by Chinese and Japanese art and featuring a diverse palette of colors and finishes, among them his unique hare's-fur glazes. In this short sequence from the 1942 movie Eld, Lera och Människor (Fire, Clay, and People) we are provided a front-row seat to his exceptional skill at the wheel.
Berndt Friberg and other artists at Gustavsberg marked their studio pieces with various stamps and signatures. From 1939-1947, Friberg used the stamps illustrated below. From 1948 on, the artist marked each work with a hand-rendering of the Gustavsberg studio symbol and his name.
In combination with the studio symbols, Friberg also marked his works with an uppercase or lowercase letter to indicate the year of production. The same letter and date code was used by others at Gustavsberg including Wilhelm Kåge and Stig Lindberg. Later in his life, Friberg wrote out the year in its entirety.
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20|21 Art: Chicago Edition
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