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‎‎‎Price category: 500 - 2,500 usd / eur

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Born in Eskilstuna, Sweden, Ulla Viotti is an internationally renowned Swedish artist whose creations are delightfully original. Her work, as showcased by these stoneware pieces, consists of large sculptures and architectural ceramics employing a range of techniques.

Viotti’s style is an interesting mixture of different impressions, affected by her study of Etruscan pottery in Italy, which influenced the formal aspect of her work developing a figurative element. Also by a visit to Israel during the 1960s where she first experienced the combination of sculpture and architectural ceramics and met ceramic artists who used materials in a more free way. These stoneware pieces however, reflect her work in a stoneware factory in Jaffa when her aesthetic changed dramatically, and started recalling the structures of the landscape that manifested the feeling of 'forsakenness', a theme that often recurs in her later work. These pieces, while visually quite different, form a pair in an unexpected way. Stoneware fires darker colours, is less dense (higher porosity) and less vitreous, finally the fired surface is less homogeneous. As a result of these qualities, these mural pieces appear rough, almost abstract. At the same time, it is evident that the colours, every line and shape is the result of a well though-out process of sculpting. Works which appear to be non-figurative often do recall the visible world and so is the case here as well. It is hard to gaze away in the presence of these Viotti works. Both pieces are signed by the artist.

The blues and browns of the uneven layered forms convey a strong feeling of organic surfaces given further resonance with the diverse curved shapes and forms. Ulla Viotti’s small scale mural works are very rare and never repeated, making this pair even more special.

Condition:

In good vintage condition. Wear consistent with age and use.

Dimensions:

Brown piece

6.88 in W x 2.55 in D x 2.75 in H

‎17.5 cm W x 6.5 cm D x 7 cm H

Blue piece

2.95 in W x 2.16 in D x 8.46 in H

7.5 cm W x 5.5 cm D x 21.5 cm H

About the designer

Ulla Lilli Marianne Viotti was born on the 20th of November in 1933 in Eskilstuna, Sweden. She studied at the School of Art in Blackpool in Great Britain between 1950-1951 and at Konstfack in Stockholm 1952-1956, for the first two years at the ceramics department and then at the school's higher art-industrial department.

She was awarded a scholarship from the Swedish Crafts Association and a scholarship from the King's Fund in 1961, as well as a travel scholarship from Värmland's museum friends. Furthermore, she has exhibited in, among other places, Karlskoga and at Konsthantverkarna in Stockholm. Since 1958 she has participated in several exhibitions in Sweden but also outside of her home country. Internationally, she has been represented at exhibitions in Viterbo, Haifa and Tel-Aviv.

Since 2005, she has been living and working in Brantevik in Österlen. Her art consists of rustic utilitarian earthenware, ceramic sculptures and earthenware reliefs as well as paintings and drawings. Viotti is represented at, among others, the National Museum in Stockholm, the Värmland Museum, the Jönköping County Museum and the collections of the Israeli state.

Her work is represented in museums and collections throughout the UK and Sweden, including the collection in Aberystwyth. She participated in the first International Potters Festival, Aberystwyth in 1987. ~H.