ArtistSwedish
Olle Ohlsson
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Olle Ohlsson was born on July 1, 1928, in Stockholm. Growing up in a creative household - his father was a musician and his mother worked as a cutter - he showed an early inclination for craft. In 1944 he began an apprenticeship at G. Hallberg, the court jewelers, and went on to work at several of Stockholm's most respected silver workshops, including Atelier Borgila under Erik Fleming, W.A. Bolin, and Claes Giertta. It was at Giertta's studio that he first experienced genuine creative freedom. Alongside this practical training he attended evening classes at Konstfack, where studies from 1954 to 1959 completed his transition from skilled artisan to independent artist.
By 1963 Ohlsson had established his own workshop in Stockholm, the same year he began teaching at the Grundskolan for konstnärlig utbildning, a post he held until 1972. His public debut came in 1965 at NK (Nordiska Kompaniet), where critics greeted him as a genuine renewer of the silversmith's trade. What distinguished him was a refusal to follow the dominant aesthetic currents of the era. He drew in an abstract, searching manner - something described as reminiscent of cave painting - and this expressive line work found its way into the decorative surfaces of his objects.
The range of his output is wide. It includes jewelry in silver and gold, hollow-ware, small-scale sculpture, and imaginative functional objects such as gold-handled canes. Among his more unusual commissions was a set of gold cases made from gold donated by camera manufacturer Victor Hasselblad, and a gold potato presented to Nobel Prize laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer. He also produced church silver for several Swedish congregations, including Falköping Church, Hjorted Church, Brunskogs Church, and Katarina Church in Stockholm, as well as a church in Gamla Karleby, Finland. Public recognition included first prize in a competition for a craftsmen's anniversary chain in 1971, and the Prince Eugen Medal in 2005, awarded following a major retrospective at Prins Eugens Waldemarsudde in 2004 and the Röhsska Museum in Gothenburg.
His work is represented in the permanent collections of Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, the Goldsmiths' Hall in London, and Oslo Museum, among others. He has exhibited internationally at institutions including Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum in Trondheim, Bergens Museum, Kunstindustrimuseet in Copenhagen, and Vastermlands Museum. Galleri Sebastian Schildt in Stockholm has long represented his work.
On the auction market, Ohlsson's silver appears regularly at Swedish houses. His 15 auction records in the Auctionist database are spread across Kaplans Auktioner, Stockholms Auktionsverk, Roslagens Auktionsverk, Bukowskis, and Björnssons Auktionskammare. Top results include a silver vase made by Silvergillet AB in Malmö (1979) that sold for 5,555 EUR and a silver dish from the same maker that brought 3,200 EUR. Smaller pieces - pendants, brooches, buttons - sell in the hundreds of Swedish kronor, reflecting a market that values his larger hollowware most highly.