At Millesgården, a six-metre-long loom reigns supreme. It was specially ordered in the 1930s for the work on Sweden's largest woven tapestry, "Melodies vid torget". The loom is part of the exhibition "Life in color and form", which follows textile designer Barbro Nilsson and sculptor Robert Nilsson during five decades of parallel and joint work.
The couple met at Konstfack in the 1920s. They stayed together for the rest of their lives and the exhibition bears witness to a rich life in the spirit of hard work. Colorful carpets and templates (cardboards) hang from the ceiling. Sculptures, models and the ball of yarn in all the colors of the rainbow complement.
Parts of the material shown were first exhibited in the Blue Hall in Höganäs in 2024.
Guest curators Xi Wallén Keller and Martin Enget talk about a successful "treasure hunt" in the Nilssons' villa south of Höganäs. Under beds and in attics, they found large black garbage bags with uncatalogued artistic life in the form of photographs, watercolours, letters and contracts. It has now become part of the teeming, maximal scenography at Millesgården.
The artist's life appears here as both joyful and playful. Seen from today's perspective, the Nilssons also belonged to a privileged generation of artists. Sweden was a nation on the rise.
For Robert Nilsson, the world exhibition in Paris in 1937 was a breakthrough. On the Quai d'Orsay stood the architect Sven Ivar Lind's Swedish pavilion, where Sweden, full of faith in the future, showed off the growing people's home. Inside the entrance, visitors were greeted by a 12 meter long ceramic wall, created by Robert Nilsson and Eric Grate. Six reliefs on the theme of "democracy" had been placed on large yellow plates.
Two years later, in 1939, Barbro Nilsson's 60 square meter tapestry "Melodies vid torget" was unveiled in the foyer of Gothenburg's concert hall. The pattern was designed by Sven X:et Erixson and the work she carried out together with six other weavers had taken three years.
The fabric contains 400 different shades, many of them colored by Barbro Nilsson. The X was overwhelmed by the denominations she produced and said that he had not been able to paint as beautifully. The art critics spoke of a "breakthrough for modern, Swedish visual weaving art".
Barbro Nilsson was also concerned with mastering the entire process: from dyeing the wool yarn herself to get exactly the right shade, to developing new weaving techniques. It was certainly a contributing factor to why, when Märta Måås-Fjetterström died in 1941, she was offered the position of artistic director of Måås-Fjetterström's weaving atelier in Båstad. She remained in that position for 30 years.
Between 1940 and 2000, Sweden experienced something of a church boom. As many as 700 new churches were built. Reputable architects were hired and artists could receive well-paid decoration commissions. Robert and Barbro Nilsson were some of them.
The exhibition gives an account of their close collaboration with the architect Sigurd Lewerentz, among other things in Markuskyrkan in Björkhagen, which was built in 1957-1963. The Nilsson couples were responsible for everything from the baptismal font in Brunflo marble to the Christ figure "The Good Shepherd" in gilded copper. In addition, the brass ceiling fixtures, two tapestries and four mess hooks bear their signature.
For most of their lives, the Nilssons worked from the Scanian village of Lerberget and the villa Lukalyckan, which they designed together with their friend and architect Sven Ivar Lind. It had a view of the sea and the sky, and the Scanian landscape served as an incredible source of inspiration.
Both Robert and Barbro were also head teachers at Konstfack in sculpture and textiles respectively from 1947-1957 and therefore came to shape future generations of artists and designers. Despite this, there has been a noticeable silence about them in recent decades.
"Life in color and form" offers a joyful feast for the eyes as well as a journey to a bygone era. For although the bright picture of artistic life in the mid-20th century probably has traces of romanticisation, it is clear that the kind of craftsmanship and tactility that the couple represented was in demand. Where are the buyers of their kind of public art today?
On a table in one of the interior exhibition rooms at Millesgården are crowded hundreds of "knots" - mini-sculptures in salt-glazed stoneware by Robert Nilsson. He did one a day "to train the senses".
In the film "Hemmavid" the son and photographer Pål-Nils Nilsson interviews his parents. "The art should speak for itself," says Robert Nilsson, as he twists and turns some of his "knuckles". One became a Viking, one became a bird, one just became, he notes.
"It's not supposed to represent anything. I'm the one playing."
