Ulrica Hydman-Vallien

Ulrica Hydman-Vallien is one of our most popular Swedish artists. Her personal, primitive imagery with an ingenious sense of colour can be seen everywhere from the British Airways air fleet to Ericsson mobile phones to textile and glass exhibits worldwide. "Images are my form of expression," says Ulrica Hydman-Vallien. Her characteristic women´s faces, lively tulips and slithering snakes have resulted in several unforgettable glass series for Kosta Boda. Forty glass painters work in the production of her glass. Born in 1938. Designer at Kosta Boda since 1972 with a studio at the Åfors glassworks.

During recent years, Ulrica-Hydman Vallien, the perennially popular Swedish artist, has received any number of commissions, some of them quite spectacular - like decorating Ericsson´s cellular phones or the tail fins of British Airways jets. For many years, she has given proof of her vigorous talents in the visual arts, producing attractive works in a variety of media, including ceramics, textiles and paintings. Her symbolically charged images are today to be found on just about everything from trays and napkins to cushions and postcards, although it is in glass, whether functional or designed for the gallery, that she excels and is at her most expressive. For many years she had made her studio in Åfors, deep in the Småland countryside.

With her robust, calligraphic brushstrokes and unerring sense of colour, Ulrica has become one of the foremost trend-setters of our times. As a person, she is straightforward and down-to-earth, seeking inspiration in her own personal world and choosing motifs from a frankly feminine perspective - children, love, eroticism and friendship are all recurrent themes in her work.

In spite of all the advances in glass technology, which, inevitably, tend to subordinate the designers to the function of the piece, over the last three decades Ulrica has maintained a solid consistency in her artistic approach. Her motifs are personal and private, but their expression is universal. Her artistic pulse beats strong, be it in Australia, Japan, the United States or Mexico.

It was back in the sixties that Ulrica Hydman-Vallien moved from her native Stockholm to take up residence in Småland. After studies at the School of Arts, Crafts and Design and work in the United States and Mexico, the young ceramist arrived with Bertil Vallien in Åfors to start designing for the local glassworks.

Ulrica Hydman-Vallien engaging style of painting on glass soon became enormously popular and was one of the cornerstones of Kosta Boda´s sales successes during the eighties and nineties. "Pictures are my means of expression," she explains. "For me, glass must always be close to your hand, to your innermost feelings, to your heart." Her characteristic female faces, her boldly executed tulips and writhing serpents, have featured in such unforgettable series as Open Minds, Tulipa, and Caramba. Other well-known painted series by Ulrica are Hearts, Inka and Nevada.

In Kaboka, a set of vases, bowls and plates that appeared in 1996, the inspiration of Australia, which Ulrica had recently visited for the first time, is clearly apparent. Here, engraved patterns on painted black and blue fields suggest the snakes, lizards, fish and mythical creatures that inhabit her dreams. The use of a coarse-tipped engraving tool imparts a robust simplicity to these unusual pieces.

With her Limoncino series, which she presented in 1998, Ulrica showed once again that she is a true pictorial artist. Ripe, yellow lemons lie heaped on plates, dishes and glasses, some accompanied by plums, tomatoes and caterpillars. Summer must be here!

Among Ulrica´s pieces for 1999 were Don Juan and Carmen, which were totally new in conception and colour. Here, aided by the glassblowers, she has created three series with a difference. The Don Juan vases, with their long, slender necks, stretch tall with a wasp-like décor of yellow-and-black stripes, while their friend Carmen, a set of bowls and vases, swirls her wide, bell-shaped skirt. A quick twist of the blowing iron imparts a striking wave to the edge of the glass. Her successor, Carmenzita, is decorated with a confetti pattern in shades of light-coloured pastel. Ulrica’s outspoken designs, even unpainted, have an immediate appeal.

The curiously wrought decanters, goblets and small bowl of her Abrakadbra series feature an irregular chipped and engraved décor, making them perfect for magic potions. All are worked by hand, their free-flaring forms and clear glass enhancing the tempting lustre of the drink.

After several years with blowing-room pieces and engraving, Ulrica Hydman-Vallien returned to the paint shop, where Blossom and Indian Summer were among her creations. The vases and dishes of the Blossom series are decorated with red and blue jungle blooms that writhe liana-like across the surface of the glass. For Indian Summer, Ulrica Hydman-Vallien developed a new type of paint, giving the glass a warm, transparent feel. The clear-glass bottles are blown in classic blowing-room style and are decorated with plumed figures both male and female.