Vackrare vardagsvara: Gregor Paulsson’s idea and the objects

Vackrare vardagsvara (More Beautiful Everyday Things) is the title of a pamphlet by the art historian Gregor Paulsson, published by the Swedish Society of Crafts and Design in 1919. The idea was that artists should work in industry, so that beautiful, well-made objects could be produced cheaply and reach everyone. It helped to bring about the employment of artists at Orrefors, Gustavsberg and other factories, and it became a foundation of Swedish design throughout the 20th century.

Facts

The idea: the artist in the factory

Around 1900 there were two worlds. The applied arts were beautiful but expensive, and the factories’ goods were cheap but often poor imitations of older styles. Ellen Key had demanded beauty for all in 1899, and in England William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement had sought the answer in handwork. But handmade became expensive, and it seldom reached the many.

Gregor Paulsson’s answer was the opposite: the artist should not stand outside industry but work within it. If good designers collaborated with the factories, beautiful objects could be made in large editions and become cheap. He had become acquainted with the Deutscher Werkbund in Germany, an association of artists, architects and industrialists, and he gathered the ideas in the pamphlet Vackrare vardagsvara in 1919. His place in the history of ideas is described in the art section’s chapter on Modernism, and the term appears in the glossary.

The Home Exhibition of 1917

The pamphlet built on the experience of the Home Exhibition (Hemutställningen) at the Liljevalchs art gallery in Stockholm in 1917, organised by the Swedish Society of Crafts and Design. It showed furnished rooms for workers’ housing and small flats, with cheap, well-made furniture, textiles and dinner services. The objects were made by artists in collaboration with factories, and they were meant to show that a beautiful home did not have to be expensive.

One of the most talked-about novelties was Liljeblå, a service that Wilhelm Kåge designed for Gustavsberg and that was soon called the workers’ service. It did not sell especially well, since many preferred to buy what looked fine in the bourgeois manner. But it showed the way, and Kåge stayed on as artistic director at Gustavsberg for decades.

The glassworks and the porcelain factories

The clearest results came in glass and porcelain. In 1916 and 1917 Orrefors employed the artists Simon Gate and Edward Hald, who were painters and not glassblowers. Together with the glassworks’ craftsmen they developed Graal glass and engraved glass with elegant figures, such as Simon Gate’s goblets. How the technique works is explained in the guide to Graal and Ariel.

At Gustavsberg Kåge made both utility porcelain and art ware, and more factories and textile workshops followed. At the same time the examples show the limits of the idea. Much of what became famous, such as the engraved glass, consisted of expensive showpieces for a small circle and not everyday goods. It was not until the 1930s that the idea really reached ordinary homes.

Swedish Grace and Functionalism

At the exhibition of decorative arts in Paris in 1925 the Swedish contributions were a success. The glass, silver and furniture were light and elegant, and a British critic gave the style the name Swedish Grace. The period is described under Swedish Grace in Swedish design history, and the same classicism in architecture in the guide to Nordic Classicism.

Paulsson was commissioner-general of the Stockholm Exhibition of 1930, which made Functionalism known in Sweden, and the following year he published, together with Gunnar Asplund and four others, the manifesto acceptera. Now more beautiful everyday things became a social programme for housing and homes. Kåge’s service Praktika of 1933, with pieces that could be stacked and used for many purposes, is a child of that thought; the period is described under Funkis.

The legacy in the people’s home

After the Second World War the idea became part of the politics of the folkhem, the Swedish welfare state. Homes, kitchens and furniture were to be functional and good value, and designers such as Stig Lindberg, Bruno Mathsson and Astrid Sampe worked for factories and department stores. Swedish and Scandinavian design gained its international reputation precisely through the combination of good form and everyday usefulness; read more in the guide to Scandinavian design and under the folkhem.

The idea has also been criticised. It was often a form of taste education from above, in which experts decided what was beautiful for others, and people did not always buy what they were expected to want. Yet it lives on, in the thought that good design should be for many and in today’s talk of sustainable objects that last a long time. An overview of the designers is given in the guide to famous Swedish designers.

What to look for: everyday goods in your own cupboard

Turn glass and porcelain over and look for the factory’s mark and the designer’s name. Many factories marked not only their art ware but also their series-produced objects with the designer’s name or initials, and that is a legacy of the idea that the artist should be visible in industry. The Gustavsberg anchor together with a service and a designer, or an engraved signature from Orrefors, are typical examples.

Look at the forms too. Objects intended for everyday use in series often have simple, stackable forms, few and clear parts and decoration that withstands the dishwasher, whereas the art ware from the same factories is richer and more expensive. Place them side by side and you see both sides of Paulsson’s programme.

How to recognise it

Exercise

What was the most important thought in Gregor Paulsson’s Vackrare vardagsvara?