KunstenaarSwedish
Rolf Sinnemark
3 actieve items
Rolf Sinnemark was born in Sweden in 1941 and trained at Konstfack, the University College of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm, where he studied ceramics and glass. His formal education gave him a grounding in both materials that would define the next four decades of his practice, moving between glassworks and ceramic manufacturers with an ease that was unusual even in the industrious world of postwar Scandinavian design.
In 1967 he joined Boda glassworks, which later became Kosta Boda following a merger with Kosta. He remained there until 1986, a nearly twenty-year period during which he developed a body of glass work characterized by clarity of form, controlled use of color, and an ongoing interest in geometric structure. Works from this period, including the Opus series of crystal bowls and the Daisy collection, show a designer working simultaneously in the modernist tradition and beginning to push against it. His glass pieces from Kosta Boda appear today in the collections of the Corning Museum of Glass in New York, the Hokkaido Museum of Art in Japan, and the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, as well as in the Swedish National Museum of Art and Design.
From 1981 onward Sinnemark also worked with Rörstrand, one of Scandinavia's oldest porcelain manufacturers. The collaboration produced some of his most formally inventive ceramic work. The Atlantis series of 1984, composed of bold geometric porcelain pieces with black glazed surfaces and graphic decorative registers, reflected the visual energy of the Memphis movement then reshaping international design. The Cube teapot of 1985 distilled this thinking into a single object: a severe, rectilinear form finished in black and white panels that sits at the intersection of product design and sculptural statement. The piece became a minor emblem of Swedish postmodern design.
Outside the factory context, Sinnemark worked extensively on architectural and public art commissions, producing large-scale glass installations that can be found internationally. This strand of his practice, less visible at auction than his tableware, demonstrates a consistent ambition to work across scales.
He also designed for Gense, Nilsjohan, and several smaller Swedish glassworks including Skrufs and Pukeberg, building a portfolio that spans everyday utility objects and gallery-quality art glass. His auction presence today is strongest in ceramics and glass, with works regularly appearing at Swedish regional houses. The Cube teapots and Rörstrand porcelain continue to draw collectors interested in the more experimental end of 1980s Scandinavian design.