Lisa Larson is born in the south of Sweden on September 9, 1931. She is taught at the College of Crafts and Design in Gothenburg between 1949 and 1954. She is then employed at Gustavsberg porcelain factory by the artistic director Stig Lindberg. She soon is attracting attention with her figurines and stoneware series in playful, sturdy designs, often hand-painted, sometimes cast and sometimes thrown and shaped by hand. Her major breakthrough comes with the ABC Girls series from 1958, figurines that are initially intended as bookends but turned out to be too light unless filled with sand. The critics and design elite at the Swedish Society of Crafts and Design turned their noses up at, in their eyes, the banal and childish design, but the general public fell in love with her figures Pippi, the Big and Little Zoo (1955), Turn of the Century, Africa (1964), Children of the World (1974-1975), and so it has continued. Today her designs are adored and collected all over the world, and in Japan in recent years they have arranged several exhibitions of her newly-produced stoneware, made by Konststudion in Gustavsberg. Larson left Gustavsberg in 1980 to work freelance for a number of Swedish companies including Duka, Kooperativa Förbundet and Åhléns. In 1992, Larson founded the Gustavsberg Ceramic Studio with a few of her former colleagues. The studio continues to produce new designs and small scale production still takes place there (text by Wikipedia and Bukowskis.com).
Pictures: Lisa Larson, early picture at Gustavsberg (source Evitas Crib); Lisa Larson and Stig Lindberg, 1970s (source Wikipedia); Lisa Larson, later picture (source Evitas Crib); ensemble of Murre cat (source Keramik Studion Group); Afghan Hound (source Mother Sweden); Bulldog (source Botterweg Auctions Amsterdam); Tile two birds (source Catawiki).
Lisa Larson is born in the south of Sweden on September 9, 1931. She is taught at the College of Crafts and Design in Gothenburg between 1949 and 1954. She is then employed at Gustavsberg porcelain factory by the artistic director Stig Lindberg. She soon is attracting attention with her figurines and stoneware series in playful, sturdy designs, often hand-painted, sometimes cast and sometimes thrown and shaped by hand. Her major breakthrough comes with the ABC Girls series from 1958, figurines that are initially intended as bookends but turned out to be too light unless filled with sand. The critics and design elite at the Swedish Society of Crafts and Design turned their noses up at, in their eyes, the banal and childish design, but the general public fell in love with her figures Pippi, the Big and Little Zoo (1955), Turn of the Century, Africa (1964), Children of the World (1974-1975), and so it has continued. Today her designs are adored and collected all over the world, and in Japan in recent years they have arranged several exhibitions of her newly-produced stoneware, made by Konststudion in Gustavsberg. Larson left Gustavsberg in 1980 to work freelance for a number of Swedish companies including Duka, Kooperativa Förbundet and Åhléns. In 1992, Larson founded the Gustavsberg Ceramic Studio with a few of her former colleagues. The studio continues to produce new designs and small scale production still takes place there (text by Wikipedia and Bukowskis.com).
Pictures: Lisa Larson, early picture at Gustavsberg (source Evitas Crib); Lisa Larson and Stig Lindberg, 1970s (source Wikipedia); Lisa Larson, later picture (source Evitas Crib); ensemble of Murre cat (source Keramik Studion Group); Afghan Hound (source Mother Sweden); Bulldog (source Botterweg Auctions Amsterdam); Tile two birds (source Catawiki).