The history of silversmithing has been largely characterized by an aesthetic built on a consensus culture where the silversmiths in the field have mainly been men. Certain quality concepts, both technically and artistically, have been prioritized over others, which has resulted in a certain aesthetic stance before others and has partly held back the development of the art form. Since the 1990s, however, a large number of female smiths have taken their place within silversmithing and today the gender balance is relatively even.
Despite the fact that there have been female silversmiths even further back, they have not always been made visible and highlighted in history writing to a sufficient degree, which we want to remedy with this seminar.
The seminar has been developed through a dialogue between Anders Ljungberg, Professor at CRAFT! Jewellery and Corpus, Konstfack and Cilla Robach, Director of collections, Nationalmuseum. The seminar is also part of the research platform Heritage, Culture, Community at KHV, Konstfack.
PROGRAM
13.00- 13.25 Introduction. Anders Ljungberg
13.30-14.00 Micael Ernstell. Female silver pioneers in the early 20th century
14.05-14.35 Cilla Robach. Female silversmiths in record-breaking Sweden.
After World War II, Sweden experienced strong economic growth, which also left its mark on silversmithing. Torun Bülow-Hübe, Kerstin Öhlin-Lejonklou and Theresia Hvorslev are among those who opened doors for later generations of female silversmiths.
14.35-14.50 Pause
14.50-15.20 Cilla Robach and Micael Ernstell in dialogue with Anders Ljungberg about the silver collection at Nationalmuseum in Stockholm.
15.20-16.00 Anna-Stina Åberg in dialogue with Anders Ljungberg. (In swedish)
16.00-16.40 Pause with coffee and sandwich. Possibility to see the exhibition by Anna-Stina Åberg.
16.40 - 17.25 Dorota Liszke. -Forms in Flux: New Expressions by Women Silversmiths 1990-2020
17.30-18.40 Discussion and presentation of the work by Beata Alfredsson Grahn, Miriam Johannesson and Sarah Hurtigkarl.
Moderator: Anders Ljungberg
18.40-19.00 Questions from the audience and round up
BIOS
Anna-Stina Åberg designs jewellery, functional items, spoons and church silver. She is represented at the National Museum in Stockholm and in many churches in Sweden and abroad. Åberg has had exhibitions in Paris, London, Berlin, Washington DC and Minneapolis. She has also designed cutlery for Ikea, spoon caskets for the royal family and “Lillskedar “(small spoons) for Crown Princess Victoria, as well as making processional crosses and candle holders for the Royal Church and processional crosses for Uppsala Cathedral, Linköping Cathedral and Karlstad Cathedral. She has also written books about silver, food and quality of life.
Beata Alfredsson Grahn is a silversmith and corpus artist based in Dals Långed. She graduated from Konstfack Craft! in 2020, with the experimental collab project Poetic Justice - a blasphemic take on liturgical corpus. Beata's practice is often introspecive towards the field itself, and investigates where objects begin and end, in space as well as in time. Beata is a member of Nutida Svenskt Silver since 2019, and she also belongs to the Dals Långed-based artist group Mörkret.
Cilla Robach is Head of Collection Unit at the National Museum in Stockholm. She is a Docent of art history with a focus on 20th and 21st century crafts and design. In 2012, she was responsible for the Nationalmuseum's exhibition Slow Art, about time-consuming processes of creation in art and crafts. Her doctoral dissertation Formens frigörelse is about the Swedish design debate of the 1960s.
Dorota Liszke is a curator and project manager with over 30 years of experience in contemporary craft and design, Dorota Liszke has worked as curator and gallery manager at leading Swedish institutions such as Galleri Sebastian Schildt, Nutida Svenskt Silver, Konsthantverkarna and Nationalmuseum. In 2000 she founded and ran her own gallery, Signerat Silver, dedicated to contemporary jewellery. She has curated and managed more than 300 exhibitions, collaborating with prominent artists, designers and museums, and has extensive experience in sales, marketing, education, and cultural communication.
Micael Ernstell is a Curator at the National Museum in Stockholm. He has written about various parts of the history of crafts in books such as European Silver 1500-1850, Swedish silver 1500-1850 , Målad plåt : bruksvara under empiren (with Ann-Sofi Topelius) , Avantgarde eller otidsenlig lyx (National museum yearbook 2004 ) and several articles about silver in the National Museum's bulletin and in The Silver Society Journal. Ernstell has also been the curator of many exhibitions in crafts and design at the National Museum in Stockholm since 1988.
Miriam Johannesson graduated from the master's program CRAFT! Jewelry & Corpus at Konstfack, Stockholm in 2023. Johannesson holds a MA in Contemporary Aesthetics at Södertörn University and a BA in Aesthetics and Art History at Uppsala University. She has been a scholarship holder in Art studies at the Swedish Institute in Rome, interned as a conservator assistant at The Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice and interned at The Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas. Johannesson is represented in both public and private collections. Miriam Johannesson is based in Stockholm, where since 2017 she also runs Kabinett, an ambulatory, conversation-based exhibition space. The work of Miriam Johannesson explores poetic and liminal qualities of light, darkness, and transcendence. Through sculpture and installation her practice delves into the interface between surface and the surrounding space, offering a counterpoint to the rigid material narratives traditionally associated with metal.
Sarah Hurtigkarl is an applied artist with a background in goldsmithing and degrees from Konstfack in Stockholm and the Royal College of Art in London. Her practice spans a wide range of expressions, characterized by a refined, hands-on approach and a deep sensitivity to materials. Working primarily in metal, she explores the boundaries between function and form, craftsmanship and art. Sarah is based in Stockholm and teaches as a lecturer at Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design.
Anders Ljungbergs practice revolves around the relationship between human, object and space in which he examines emotional, metaphorical and poetic understandings of everyday use. He exhibits frequently worldwide and is represented at Marzee collection in Nijmegen, Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, Röhsska Design museum in Gothenburg, Nasjonalmueet in Oslo, Nordiska museet in Stockholm and the Royal collection at Stockholm Castle. At Konstfack, he was first working as a Senior Lecturer between 2000 and 2010. From 2016 he is Professor at the Jewellery and Corpus CRAFT! Programme at Konstfack. He also worked as professor at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts, Metal and Jewellery Art, between 2014-2016.