Modern Art & Design presents Anna Petrus
Anna Petrus
Bukowskis presents a rare tray table by Anna Petrus, executed in her own studio ca 1922-25, at this spring's live auction Modern Art & Design.
Anna Petrus was born into a family of academics in Uppsala, Sweden. After graduating from high school, she studied sculpture in London at Chelsea Polytechnic School. Back in Stockholm, she continued her studies at Althins Målarskola, where Petrus made good friends among her fellow students, including Siri Derkert, Märta Anckarsvärd and Greta Ruuth. Petrus then went on to the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts, where she began studying printmaking, before continuing with sculpture. In 1914, Petrus exhibited her prints at the Baltic Exhibition in Malmö. Petrus participated with nine linocuts as a member of the Swedish Printmakers' Association. At that time, she had a combined studio and residence by the Tennis Pavilion in central Stockholm - a collective of female artists who opposed the conservative and male-dominated art world.
In February 1916, Anna Petrus, together with her friend Greta Ruuth, had her real debut exhibition in the then premises of the Swedish Association for Art on Västra Trädgårdsgatan at Kungsträdgården in Stockholm. A variety of prints in various techniques but also a group of sculptures were shown, often expressive studies of men and women. The following year, Petrus and her artist friend Siri Derkert arranged a traveling exhibition that would start from Den Frie in Copenhagen. The Danish capital became a kind of waiting room for Paris during the war years. Once back in Stockholm in 1920, Petrus planned a larger exhibition of sculpture at the newly opened Swedish-French Art Gallery. Shortly before it was time for the opening, she was struck by a personal disaster. The studio at the Tennis Pavilion burned down and only a few sculptures could be saved from the fire. After the miserable situation, Petrus undertook a longer journey, first to Italy, then via North Africa to Paris. In North Africa, she found direct inspiration in the so-common smoking tables.
Back in Stockholm and the new studio on Riddargatan in central Stockholm, Petrus came to focus on crafts rather than sculpture and graphics. She executed several different types of trays in a variety of materials; pewter, copper and sometimes with elements of silver. The trays were provided with richly chiseled and punched decoration and were sometimes combined with artful bases, sometimes sculpted in wood by Petrus herself, and sometimes designed by her architect friend Uno Åhrén. A well-received exhibition in the studio in December 1922 resulted in a selection of trays and tables being selected to be shown at the Gothenburg Tercentennial Jubilee Exposition the following year. In 1925, journalist Nils G. Wollin writes in the magazine of the Swedish Crafts Association how Petrus's "admirable technique shows evidence of a far from ordinary perseverance in the laborious execution" and mentions the trays as "original entries in modern, Swedish applied art".
At the same time, Petrus began working in cast pewter and designed, among other things, various types of candlesticks and inkstands with lion motifs executed at Herman Bergman's art foundry in Stockholm. These models were later shown at the great Swedish industrial art exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum in New York and the Art Institute of Chicago in 1927. At the International Industrial Art Exhibition in Paris in 1925, Petrus participated with display tables, door lintels and columns made of cast iron from Näfveqvarns Bruk. Around 1926-28, the collaboration with Estrid Ericson and Firma Svenskt Tenn was established, resulting in several, today iconic models.
With her sculptural and artistic approach to industrial art, Anna Petrus held a special position alongside contemporary designers, and contributed to a renewal of Swedish pewter art in the 1920s. Her period as an active craftswoman and sculptor was still short-lived, and early furniture like the present tray table, executed in her own studio during the 1920s, are to be regarded as real rarities.
The table will be sold at Modern Art & Design
Estimate: 300 000 - 400 000 SEK
Viewing: May 14–19, Berzelii Park 1, Stockholm
Open May 14 12 AM–6 PM, weekdays 11 AM–6 PM, weekends 11 AM–4 PM
Live auction: May 20–21, Arsenalsgatan 2, Stockholm
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