Swedish painter, sculptor and textile artist Ingegerd Torhamn played a critical role within the Swedish Modernist movement. The carpets she designed, in particular, were unprecedented within the context of contemporary Swedish textile art.

Black lacquered wood, with hand-painted drawers, metal pulls.
Signed on backside, 'Design and Decor by Ingegerd Torhamn (18)98 12 27 - 0420'.

Provenance: 
This unique chest of drawers was owned and used in Ingegerd Torhamn's atelier, and was hand-painted by the Artist herself. Contemporary pictures show the piece in situ.

History:
Swedish painter, sculptor and textile artist Ingegerd Torhamn (1898 - 1994) played a critical role within the Swedish Modernist movement. Ingegerd Torhamn was born in Stockholm in 1898. Daughter of painter Knut Sjöstrand, it became clear from an early age that she would aspire to a career in art. After training in sculpture at the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts, her aesthetic gradually moved more towards ‘Funkis’, the Nordic equivalent of the international architectural style functionalism.     

In the mid-1920s, Torhamn moved to Paris, where she became involved in the dynamic avant-garde artist community of the time. Upon her return to Sweden in 1927, Torhamn was hired as an aesthetic consultant for Swedish companies furnishing their properties in Berlin. At this point, she came into contact with the German Bauhaus movement, which, at the time, was relocating from Weimar to Dessau. The Constructivist spirit and practical approach of Bauhaus were increasingly seen as fundamental to modern design, and were key to the further development and maturation of Ingegerd Torhamn’s design language. 

She participated in the legendary Stockholm exhibition in 1930, which cemented her reputation as a serious and well-respected designer. She created and displayed a dozen carpets and textile works throughout the exhibition in a bold modernist language. Her radical designs fitted perfectly with the aesthetic and general mission of the exhibition. With its slogan ‘Acceptera!’, or ‘Accept!’, the exhibition pleaded for an acceptance for the style of functionalism, thereby ushering in a new era of Modernism.


Provenance:
The Torhamn family.

Furniture

Unique Chest of Drawers

Designed 1929, executed 1930
Hand-knotted wool
With woven signature 'it'
Offered together with two watercolour drawings from the designer, both signed and one dated 1929

Exhibited: 
Stockholm Exhibition, Villa 42
V.I.P. in Swedish Design, Kalmar Konstmuseum 1996.

Literature: 
Katalog Över Bostadsavdelningen: Stockholms Utställningen 1930 (illustrated in situ) 
Stockholm Exhibition1930 (Stockholm: Tryckt Hos Bröderna Lagerström, Boktryckare, 1930) p. 149
Drawing illustrated: V.I.P. in Swedish Design: Axel Larsso, Ingegerd Torhamn, Inga Linden & Paula Sokolow, Arkiv for Svensk Formgivning, Kalmar Konstmuseum
Svenska Textilier 1930, Stockholm 1930, Nils G. Wollin, plate no. 50

    
One of the ten rugs of her designs (including this rug as part of the music room) exhibited at the important Stockholm Exhibition of 1930. A number of her works, including those from the Stockholm Exhibition, are retained within the permanent collection of the National Museum, Stockholm.

Carpets

Important Modernist rug

Ingegerd Torhamn

Hand made pile rug. Exhibited at the Stockholm Exhibition in 1930.
Litt. Kalmar Konstmuseum exhibition catalogue V.I.P in Swedish Design 1996.
Provenance: Ingegerd Tornhamn.