The collection
Two vases of different shapes and sizes and one bowl in off-white porcelain.
1949

Vases and Bowl, Veckla

Designed by
Stig Lindberg (1916–1982)
Material
Glazed porcelain
Produced by
AB Gustavsberg, Gustavsberg, Sweden
Dimensions
Tallest: 35.5 x 17.4 x 8.3 cm

The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the Liliane and David M. Stewart Collection, gift of Geoffrey N. Bradfield, D85.158.1, D85.159.1, D86.144.1

Veckla is Swedish for “folded,” an appropriate name for Lindberg’s quirky line of porcelain for Gustavsberg. While traditional ceramic forms made on a potter’s wheel are usually circular, Lindberg wanted asymmetrical abstract forms, similar to sculpture.

He achieved this by pinching and folding the clay of cylindrical and cone-shaped vessels while it was still soft. Rounded, wavy forms were already common in the 1930s in the work of glass and ceramic artisans, but Lindberg’s technique permitted the creation of such complex forms in inexpensive large-scale production.

The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, photo: Denis Farley. © Estate of Stig Lindberg / SOCAN (2019)