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Rut Bryk

(Finland, 1916-1999)
Estimate
75 000 - 100 000 SEK
6 750 - 9 000 EUR
7 210 - 9 620 USD
Hammer price
185 000 SEK
Covered by droit de suite

By law, the buyer will pay an artist fee for this work of art. This fee is 5% of the hammer price, or less. For more information about this law:

Sweden: BUS
Finland: Kuvasto

Purchasing info
Image rights

The artworks in this database are protected by copyright and may not be reproduced without the permission of the rights holders. The artworks are reproduced in this database with a license from Bildupphovsrätt.

For condition report contact specialist
Camilla Behrer
Stockholm
Camilla Behrer
Head of Design/ Specialist Modern & Contemporary Decorative Art & Design
+46 (0)708 92 19 77
Rut Bryk
(Finland, 1916-1999)

a large stoneware "Sun Rose" wall relief, Arabia, Finland 1950's.

Two pieces mounted to a wooden plaque, sun rose with a bird, glazed in several colours. Height ca 123,5 cm, width 45 cm, depth ca 6 cm.

A few minor rim chips.

Literature

Harri Kalha, "Rut Bryk", EMMA, Espo Museum of Modern Art, 2nd edition, 2016, see pp 172-173, compare Sun Rose, ca 1957, illustrated from the Kakkonen Collection, p 173.

More information

Sun rose received second prize in a major review of ceramic art held at the Syracuse Museum of Art, USA, in 1958.

Designer

Rut Bryk was a prominent Finnish ceramicist and visual artist, born in 1916 in Stockholm. She is considered a significant figure in Finland's modern art industry and had a long association with the porcelain factory Arabia.


Bryk studied at the University of Art and Design Helsinki and began her career as a graphic artist and illustrator. In the late 1930s, she started exploring weaving techniques by creating vibrant tapestries from rags. Alongside these, her hand-printed fabrics featuring picturesque plant and human motifs in linoleum cuts captivated audiences at art and industry exhibitions. Eventually, Bryk became intrigued by the possibilities of ceramics and was employed at the Arabia porcelain factory. In her early production, there were figurative depictions of people and animals executed in glaze painting and scratching on faience, a technique she learned from ceramist Birger Kaipiainen.


Rut Bryk's artistry became particularly distinctive when she began exploring reliefs. Her abstract, sculpture-like ceramic wall reliefs, composed of thousands of small tile parts, were cast in the factory from Bryk's models and formed the basis for her sophisticated works in the 1970s and 1980s. The reliefs' play of light and shadow creates a sense of something immaterial or three-dimensional in constant motion, often incorporating stories from childhood or experiences in nature that run as a common thread through Bryk's works.


In 1994, Bryk was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Helsinki. Her works are represented in several museums both in Finland and abroad.

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