Beautifully produced and informative, Wiwen Nilsson (Rizzoli, $80) is the first English-language monograph on the Swedish silversmith, designer, jeweler, and sculptor Karl Edvin Nilsson (1897–1974), known as Wiwen. Important for his modernist aesthetic, Nilsson was a meticulous craftsman for whom careful, traditional silver-smithing and jewelry-making methods were part of the integrity of his designs. The book both introduces him to those outside his homeland and shows why he deserves to be recognized in a broader context. It reflects fresh access to his archives by the four scholars who contributed essays.
Nilsson studied in Germany, Copenhagen, and Paris. His interest in the precise geometries of the modernist movement is evident in works he displayed at the Gothenburg Tercentennial Jubilee Exposition in 1923, though at the time conservative critics appreciated his artisanal skill but not his aesthetics. However, in 1925 he won a gold medal at the Paris Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes, his style as fêted as his skill. In 1927 he was named the artistic and design director of his father’s silversmithing firm, A. Nilsson in Lund, Sweden.
The book’s four essays include two by the overall editor and project leader, Flavia Frigeri, an art historian and curator at the National Portrait Gallery, London. Her introductory essay discusses Nilsson’s commitment to handwork and his methods, and is accompanied by archival photographs. She acknowledges the seminal research conducted by the late Kersti Holmquist in the designer’s archives, embodied in Holmquist’s Silversmeden: Wiwen Nilsson (1990). However, Holmquist’s findings are not individually footnoted in the essays, making it hard to know what is new material here. (There is an excellent timeline at the end of the book. Had it appeared at the beginning, it might have avoided the repetition of some information in the essays and allowed new discoveries to stand out.)
Frigeri’s second essay, “Exhibiting and Exhibited: Wiwen Nilsson Shows His Work,” describes some of Nilsson’s contributions to international exhibitions, with useful archival photos. But given that exhibitions were the primary means by which Nilsson’s designs came to be known internationally, one might wish for more about potential influences or design-idea exchanges in his silver. No attention is given to the well-exhibited designs of Josef Hoffmann and others at the Wiener Werkstaette, or whether Nilsson had any contact with Erik Magnussen, the Danish designer who came to the US and produced Scandinavian and cubist-modernist designs, both independently and for Gorham.
Like Nilsson, Magnussen turned away from more traditional Scandinavian design in his Cubic silver service for Gorham of 1927, made to show that even those who wanted solid silver could favor modernism. But the set never sold, proving that the marketplace still wanted silver to be more traditional and new materials to be used with the new style. It would be interesting to know if Wiwen’s faceted silver included in a 1930 Stockholm exhibition owes anything to Magnussen or if his modern style in Gothenburg in 1923 or Paris in 1925 influenced Magnussen.
In “Wiwen Nilsson as a Designer” design critic Alice Rawsthorn details specific objects and the world in which Nilsson produced them, using well-researched quotes from period sources that help readers better understand his contributions to design. Clare Phillips, a jewelry curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, lends her wide-ranging knowledge to “A Conscious and Pure Sense of Style: The Jewelry of Wiwen Nilsson.” She gives the book’s most complete and clear account of a specific area of Nilsson’s work, using the archives and her own knowledge to show his specific genius and its place in jewelry and design history.
The last essay, “In Good Company: Wiwen Nilson’s Sculpture,” is by Theresa Kittler, a lecturer in modern and contemporary art at the University of York, UK. Sculpture is the least-known area of Nilsson’s work, but it informs the silver and jewelry with his sense of their belonging with the “fine” arts. Kittler suggests some outside influences on his sculptures, though it is unclear how much influence he had on sculpture by other artists at home or abroad.
There is a lot to learn from this handsome book. It should lead to even more research on this important designer and a fuller recognition of his talents.
