Description
Imagine this striking dark brown Icelandic piece of lava pottery on your side table, atop a few books, juxtaposed with a soft fern or pretty violet plant placed inside. What a subtle, yet pretty, statement that would make! This handmade, signed Glit pottery is in the “Brutalist” design style — a style that intentionally attempts to look raw, haphazard or unadorned. This small piece of pottery (brand) measures a mere 3 1/2″ tall x not quite 3 1/2″ wide.
What is Glit Pottery?
The Design Museum Iceland, which in 2013 held a retrospective exhibition of works from Glit Pottery, offered the following description of Glit pottery on its exhibition site which you can read here:
The exhibition placed emphasis on the fact that despite its complicated history over many years of operation, Glit was adamantly devoted to utilizing Icelandic clay and ground minerals in production during its first decade of operation—especially hardened lava. Glit was, in many ways, well ahead of its time—making deep impressions in the history of Icelandic ceramic art.
The Glit Pottery LLC was founded on June 10, 1958 by Einar Elíasson, a businessman; Pétur Sæmundsen, then head of the Federation of Icelandic Industries and later head of the Industrial Bank (Iðnaðarbanki); and Ragnar Kjartansson, sculptor and ceramic artist. The pottery, operated at Óðinsgata downtown Reykjavik until 1971, when the decision was made to expand the company and move its operations to Höfði. The company’s time at Óðinsgata is often referred to as the “Old Glit”, and the company as it operated at Höfði called “The Big Glit.”
Glit’s administration had lofty artistic ambitions immediately upon the company’s founding. Ideas about expansion and exportation came early on, so that nearly from its inception the company operated under the highest of standards and was unyielding in their demand to withstand all comparison. Many of this country’s best-known artists of the 20th century worked at Glit at one point or another, remembering the place as an artistic breeding ground, especially during the time when Ragnar was in charge of the manufacturing workshop at Óðinsgata. Technological advances and the desire to increase production led Glit to shift gears, moving them from Iceland’s history of art and design and into its industrial history.
The exhibition “A Glimpse of Glit” included many items from the Pottery, both from Óðinsgata (where operations lasted between 1958-1971) as well as from Höfði. The company’s physical move reflected the changing emphasis of its production, as it took place at the same time as artistic direction shifted from Ragnar Kjartansson to the German ceramic artist Gerhard Schwarz, who took over in 1968.
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