ArtistSwedish
Mats Jonasson
8 active items
Mats Jonasson, born in 1945 in the village of Målerås in Småland, represents the third generation of glass craftsmen in his family. Growing up in a community of fewer than 200 residents, nearly all connected to the local glassworks, he entered the trade at age fourteen. His apprenticeship at Målerås glasbruk in 1959 set the course for a career that would reshape the identity of Swedish art glass.
After a decade at Målerås, Jonasson moved to Kosta in 1969, where he spent six years expanding his technical range among some of Sweden's most accomplished glass artists. He returned to Målerås in 1975 and quickly established a distinctive voice through engraved lead crystal sculptures depicting Nordic wildlife, elk, bears, eagles, wolves, rendered with a naturalistic precision that set his work apart from the more abstract tendencies of Swedish studio glass at the time.
In 1981, when Kosta Boda announced plans to shut down production in Målerås, Jonasson organized a buyout. Together with fifteen craftsmen and eighty local citizens, he purchased the glassworks outright. He became managing director and chief designer, turning the small village operation into an internationally distributed brand. Under his leadership, Målerås glasbruk earned the designation Kunglig Hovleverantör, supplier to the Swedish Royal Court. Several of his pieces entered the permanent collection at the Småland Museum in Växjö early in his career.
Beyond the wildlife engravings that first brought him international attention, Jonasson developed the Masq collection, a series of cast crystal face sculptures drawing on Nordic mythology and Oriental motifs. Pieces like "Mystiqua," "Nike," and "Ideo" employ sandblasting, painting, and hand-polishing to create sculptural masks with both abstract and figurative qualities. He also pioneered the Iron & Crystal series, combining cast and polished iron with engraved crystal in freestanding sculptures that push the material into new territory.
On the secondary market, Jonasson's work circulates steadily through Swedish auction houses, with 118 lots recorded on Auctionist across houses concentrated in Småland and eastern Sweden, Auktionskammaren Sydost Kalmar, Kalmar Auktionsverk, and Växjö Auktionskammare among the most active. Glass accounts for the vast majority of lots. Limited edition pieces and the Iron & Crystal works command the strongest prices: a limited-edition konstglastavla reached 6,000 SEK, while "Nike II" in crystal and iron sold for 4,500 SEK. The Masq sculpture "Mystiqua" brought 4,100 SEK, and a "Lilja" wall sculpture fetched 3,201 SEK. Most pieces trade between 500 and 2,000 SEK, reflecting wide collector accessibility rather than speculative scarcity.