- This exhibition is closed
Ulrica Hydman Vallien – A Paradise Attack
Popular and colorful Ulrica Hydman Vallien is for many best known as a glass designer. But she was an all-round artist whose pen and brushes were always in motion. The exhibition "A Paradise Attack" shows how life and art were one for her, and how energy and joy also carry a darkness.
The exhibition commissioner is Staffan Bengtsson, who has followed Ulrica Hydman Vallien's artistry for three decades. As a designer and artist, Ulrica Hydman Vallien was unique and uniquely productive. Ceramics, glass, textiles, airplanes, Easter eggs and furniture – there was nothing she didn't paint or draw on! She made Swedish glass art popular for real, but also had an international reputation.
Ulrica Hydman was born in Stockholm in 1938, the oldest in a sibling family of five where three attended Konstfack. Ulrica was educated there from 1958 to 1962 in the Department of Ceramics and Glass, with Stig Lindberg as one of the teachers.
At Konstfack she also met Bertil Vallien, who became her husband in 1963. Together they made study trips in the USA and Mexico, among others, and worked there with ceramics. The inspiration from Mexican folk art was one of many art experiences she carried with her. Matisse and Léger, David Hockney and Frida Kahlo were artists who also meant a lot to her.
She was a skilled cartoonist and participated every year between 1964 and 1972 in Nationalmuseum's annual exhibition Young Cartoonists. In 1972 she was named Sweden's best. "At its most outspoken, I think, her artistry in the drawings, they also surpass the fabulating of the paintings," Staffan Bengtsson writes in the catalogue.
Her debut exhibition in 1965 was with ceramics, but after the couple settled down and started working at Åfors glassworks in the early 1970s, she also began experimenting with glass. The same imagination and playfulness that her ceramics showed, she also transferred to the glass in many series such as Caramba and Open Mind.
Utställningen på Liljevalchs blir inte kronologisk utan temaburen. Över 500 verk ställs ut, glas, keramik, målningar, teckningar och föremål. Här blir salar med bara teckningar, salar med keramik och också en rekonstruktion från hennes sista utställning på Vida museum på Öland sommaren och hösten 2018, med ett avskalat måleri. Hon planerade själv, tillsammans med Staffan Bengtsson, utställningen men avled hastigt och oväntat i mars 2018, tre dagar före sin 80-årsdag.
Ulrica var alltid sugen på nya unga konstnärskollegor och hade en levande kontakt med många av dem. Tillsammans med Åsa Jungnelius gjorde hon t ex utställningen Fun Fearless Female på Smålands museum i Växjö 2004. Utställningen blev Jungnelius genombrott som glaskonstnär och den fick stort medialt genomslag, inte minst tack vare sin erotiska frispråkighet.
Några år senare gick Björn Kjelltoft ut Konstfack och hans examensarbete blev ett slags hyllning till Ulrica Hydman Vallien. På vanliga kasserade PET-flaskor målade han tulpaner och ormar och ögon à la Ulrica. Tilltaget slutade med att Ulrica fångade upp repliken och började producera egna PET-flaskor, men nu i handblåst glas nere på sitt småländska glasbruk i Kosta. TACK, BJÖRN kallade hon projektet. Vilken (förstås) blev en ny kommersiell succé!
At Liljevalchs we reconstruct these two events and give Åsa and Björn a place on stage one more time, Björn Kjelltoft also with a brand new tribute to Ulrica.
