BJORN WIINBLAD DENMARK EARLY BIG BOWL/PLATE - 1954

Apparently, multi-artist Bjørn Wiinblad is gifted with a sparkling fantasy putting him in the position to create exuberant masterpieces of ceramics, which during the years have enthused people across the globe. There is no doubt about his significant position within the decorative art and craftwork. His design is strongly personal and often has a touch of Oriental inspiration.

In 1998, when Bjørn Wiinblad celebrated his 80 birthday, the exhibition place Sophienholm in Lyngby north of the Danish capital Copenhagen dedicated a special exhibition to his works through time. For the exhibition a catalogue with text written by Bjørn Wiinblad himself was published.

A peculiar tradition in Wiinblad’s family was that the youngsters usually got an education as typesetter, only to find out which line of business they would actually choose later in life. 17 years old Wiinblad followed this tradition and became a typesetters apprentice in 1935. Luckily he left this path as a technical composer of newspaper pages and became an artist.

To become a designer was a natural choice for Bjørn Wiinblad who already as a child was renowned for his creative mind. Before Christmas he was always busy drawing, painting, cutting and pasting astonishing gifts for friends and family.

Apparently, his calling is to create designs that makes the world a little bit more beautiful, a little more inspiring, a little more funny and often much more colourful. In doing so, he works in many different areas, for example with ceramics, porcelain, glass, posters, decoration for the theatres as well as textiles. In his own words, working with many different kinds of art is “a permanent search for the uncertain – to be a beginner – so that I must exert myself to meet the requirements of the different tasks”. This shall be seen contrary to the artists seeking perfection in one specific area.

As a fresh educated typesetter Bjørn Wiinblad joined the school of graphics at the Academy of Art with the aim to become an illustrator. A coincidental meeting with a fellow student changed this plan. The student took Wiinblad to a ceramics workshop where he was invited to decorate a newly thrown clay bowl. “I never forget the moment, I took the cow's horn in my hand and started to decorate – it was big and fortunate moment. When I left the workshop, I knew that I had experienced something special”, Bjørn Wiinblad writes in the above mentioned catalogue.

At this time, his preferred work became the decoration of large bowls with cow horn paint, where after pottery tradition clay colour was applied directly on the potsherd.

This was followed by an ambivalent period where Bjørn Wiinblad tried to continue his graphical studies and simultaneously by all means tried to work with ceramics. He was happy when he got the opportunity to work solely on his own projects at the workshop of ceramist Lars Syberg in Tåstrup near Copenhagen.

In 1945 Bjørn Wiinblad for the first time exhibited his works to the public. The exhibition consisted of ceramics, naturalistic portraits, children's books that he both illustrated and wrote including a complete illustrated edition of Aladdin. In retroperspect this was an important turning point for his future career. In this frame he became acquainted with Jacob E. Bang, who just had been promoted to art director of the faience factory Nymølle. This was Wiinblad’s first contact with industry and also the beginning of a “fortunate collaboration”. .

At Nymølle Wiinblad made the finest pen drawings, which was copied to the production by in general monochrome copper engraving. This was a low-cost decoration technique, and items from this period can be found in almost every danish family.