Home | << zurück in english | en français The Art of Adaptation – Aspects of 20th Century Danish Silver JÖRG SCHWANDT Expert in Danish Silver and Art Dealer, Berlin Danish silver would never have attained its prominent role in the 20th century if it had not been for the great success of the Georg Jensen Silversmithy. Like an enormous flagship the Jensen Silversmithy has been ploughing the waves, allowing a number of other silversmithies to follow in its wake. But it is often forgotten that there existed a much smaller piloting vessel that consequently went ahead to show the new way. And it is just as often overseen that at certain times the flagship fell back and had to leave the leading role to one or another of the smaller ships. Be it piloting ship, flagship or those taking the lead in between, Danish silver has a common trait. That is the ability to recognize an important artistical or technical change, often occuring in another country, even in another material, and, instead of copying a style slavishly, adapting it to the given artistic and technical possibilities and thus transferring the very idea of it. Adaptation not in the sense of imitating a successful style but in the sense of transporting an idea to keep it alive on a new feeding ground. Vase Mogens Ballin, Copenhagen, design pre-1907, execution 1915 Cast pewter Bröhan-Museum, Berlin Cat. Modern Art of Metalwork nr. 12 The piloting ship was the metal workshop of the symbolistic painter Mogens Ballin. When he in 1899 transferred the revolutionary ”arts and crafts” principle to Danish metalwork, his way of adaptation was both a stylistical and a sociological renewal. The stylistical change towards symbolism, much influenced by japonism, is not so bold and can be found in Bindesbøll’s, later Jensen’s works and certainly in the Viennese school. Much more important, and already at that time showing one of the significant lines of development in Danish 20th century silver, was the sociological change. Simple materials like pewter or silver and cabochon-finished gem stones, and a mildly rationalized way of handicrafting opened the way to a broad bourgeois clientele. A way, which Georg Jensen, who from 1901 until 1904 was head of Ballin’s workshop, continued when he opened his own workshop in 1904. Building upon Ballin’s special ability to show the material character of silver, Jensen introduced his very special floral naturalism. A naturalism, baroque at times, very controlled and stylized at other times, but always of an enormous technical solidity. Most of the Jensen Silversmithy’s success can be attributed to this specific Jensen-style, which kept echoeing through Europe until long after the art nouveau period’s end. However, nearly one hundred years of successful survival of a vulnerable thing like a silversmithy would never have been possible without considerable organisational adaptations which Jensen willingly undertook or was forced to do. Footed Bowl Georg Jensen sølvsmede, Copenhagen Design Georg Jensen 1912 Silver Bröhan-Museum, Berlin Cat. Modern Art of Metalwork nr. 37 The technical and economical part of the smithy’s reorganisation begins with a reasonable rationalization of production, where handicraft is tedious and inefficient. Further steps towards a manufactural enlargement, taken by Jensen already after a few years, are serial production, a widening of the capital basis by issueing stocks, and a market expansion throughout Europe’s leading capitals. Perhaps the most important adaptation, securing the survival of the Jensen Silversmithy, has been a graduate but constant change of style, which early breaks away from art nouveau’s ample decorations. Johan Rohde, painter and furniture designer, introduced an architectural strictness, which eventually confined the decorative elements to few technically or statically important places. Preparing the smithy for the art déco and functionalist periods, when the classical decorative style of Jensen himself was full alive. Such diversity of style was consequently developed by working with silversmiths and designers of differing expressions. Paired with great technical solidity as sign of corporate identity, artistical diversity proved to be the best guarantee for a constant adaptation process. Up to the middle of the century Denmark was a small country with a population mostly orientated on agriculture. So, in 1925, there was no considerable mundane upperclass to spend a lot of money on luxuries, like for example in France. That is why there was no chance for the demonstratively luxurious type of art déco silver to develop in Denmark. In spite, there was a clear tendency towards a sober functionalism, showing in Kay Fisker’s jug of 1927 for A. Michelsen Silversmithy, which is spun in one piece. And there was an enormous interest for the Bauhaus ideal of rationalized production with its new aesthetics. Wine Jug A. Michelsen, Copenhagen Design Kay Fisker, ca. 1927 Sterling silver Bröhan-Museum, Berlin Cat. Modern Art of Metalwork nr. 60 Again, from 1928 onwards, at the Frantz Hingelberg Silversmithy in Århus, a Danish silversmith, Svend Weihrauch, grasped a revolutional idea, the Bauhaus idea, and adapted it to the daily production of the typical little craftsman workshop. Tea Pot Hingelberg silversmithy, Aarhus Design Svend Weihrauch, 1938 Sterling silver, ebonite Bröhan-Museum, Berlin Cat. Modern Art of Metalwork nr. 33 The consequent use of rationalizing techniques like spinning, of rationalizing work organisation (division of labour) and of the synthetic material ebonite to rationalize the making of isolated handles, and at the same time refraining from a possible serial production, brought about surprising aesthetic results. What was experimental and sporadic at the Bauhaus metal workshop, developed consequently in the hands of Weihrauch and became a new kind of craftsman-culture. A craftsman-culture which Weihrauch carried on from the stereometrical forms of the 1930’ies to the organical forms of the 40’ies and 50’ies. Probably not the last example of successful adaptation in Danish silver, but certainly one we Germans must be thankful for. By keeping the Bauhaus ideals alive, Weihrauch gave us the chance to pick up a thread of aesthetic culture, which we so brutally have cut off. Selected publications by Jörg Schwandt: WMF Glas – Keramik – Metall 1925-1950. Versuche künstlerischer Gestaltung, exhib. cat. Berlin (Kunstgewerbemuseum) e. a. 1980/81 Dänisches Silber des 20. Jahrhunderts. Teil I: Der Weg zum Jensen-Stil. Teil II: Funktionalismus, dreißiger und vierziger Jahre. Teil III: Fünfziger und sechziger Jahre, in: Weltkunst 57 (1987) Nr. 22-24, pp. 3412-3415, 3590-3593 and 3686-3689 Svend Weihrauch 1928-1956. Silber. Ein dänischer Funktionalist (Skrifter fra Museet på Koldinghus 4), exhib. cat. Kolding (Museet på Koldinghus) – Leipzig (Grassimuseum) - Köln (Museum für Angewandte Kunst) 1998, Kolding 1998 together with Poul Dedenroth-Schou and Bent Gabrielsen: Karl Gustav Hansen. Silber 1930-1994, exhib. cat. Kolding 1994 © 2008 Bröhan-Museum | Bronze-Figur: Agathon Léonard, Danseuse au bracelet (Tänzerin mit Armband), um 1900, Bronze, goldpatiniert, Susse Frères, Paris | Abb.: Kaffee- und Teeservice, Maison Cardeilhac, Paris, um 1890 | Webdesign unicom-berlin.de