Gunnar Nylund

Who is Gunnar Nylund?

Gunnar Nylund was a Swedish ceramic designer since the 1930s, best known as the artistic director of Rörstrand, was already a well-established ceramic artist in Denmark first at the Bing & Grøndahl Porcelain factory in Copenhagen 1925-28. Later, in 1928, in collaboration with chemist Nathalie Krebs, he started a ceramics workshop, which became Saxbo in 1930, which kept making his stoneware until 1932. Nylund worked for Rörstrand from 1931–1955, the majority of the time as artistic director. He became well known for his new matte feldspar glazed stoneware in hare’s fur and crystal glazes and for his stoneware animal sculptures.

Over five decades, Nylund crafted some 30 reliefs and sculptures commissioned for public spaces. Moreover, in the 1940s he was commissioned to do several freelance projects, including designing bathroom fixtures and interiors for the Swedish bathroom manufacturer Ifö. He also designed a number of products for refrigerator use. From 1955, he was artistic director for Strömbergshyttans glassworks in Hovmantorp, and later freelanced for the company. In the early 1960s, Nylund returned to Copenhagen. There he started producing stoneware for Nymölle Keramiska Fabrik in Lyngby. After a change of ownership at Rörstrand in the mid-1960s, he re-turned to Nymölle as a freelancer, producing a more industrial class type of stoneware. At this time he also created Europe’s largest stoneware fountain the “Scanisarius” in Bromölla, Sweden.