Carl-Harry Stålhane
Carl-Harry Ingemar Stålhane, born 15 December 1920 in Mariestad, died 11 April 1990 in Lidköping, was a Swedish ceramist, designer, sculptor and painter.
Carl-Harry Stålhane was the son of the merchant Carl Vilhelm Hilarius Stålhane and Agnes Elisabeth Lundgren and from 1948 married to Birgit Ingegerd Dahlin.
Stålhane studied faience painting at Rörstrands Porslinsfabrik and after passing exams was employed as a faience painter at the factory in 1939, but in the mid-1940s he was given the opportunity to try working with the wheel, which resulted in him further training at Grünewald's painting school 1944–1946 and for the sculptor Ossip Zadkine at the Académie Colarossi in Paris 1947–1948. After his time in Paris, he was given a job in design, and he first created stoneware in a Chinese classical style with a certain connection to Gunnar Nylund's objects.
Through stages of faience painting and ornate glaze decoration, in the 1950s he reached a harsh and closed form of chamotte stoneware, including vases and abstract sculptures with eruptively mottled earthen glazes. At the age of 30 he became something of a master of stoneware and took over as leading artist after Gunnar Nylund. In the early 1960s he worked with heavier objects that were often modeled instead of turned, and his square shapes became more common.
He also designed consumer goods for series production, among other things he designed the Victoria series that was shown in London in 1959, and together with Aune Laukanen, who was responsible for the decoration, he created the Spanish-inspired Torro series. He also designed a stoneware service exclusively for the Operakällaren in Stockholm. For the last two years he was also the design director at Upsala Ekeby.
While working at Rörstrand, he was appointed head teacher of ceramics and glass at the School of Fine Arts in Gothenburg, a position he held part-time from 1963 until 1971.
Stålhane moved to his own business in the Designhuset in Lidköping in 1973, where he resumed his experiments with local clays and minerals. Here he collaborated with other designers and turners, and made interesting glaze experiments himself. From this time on he also had commissions for Bing & Grøndahl, for whom he made both decorations and a large series of table lamps.
He exhibited separately at Ostermans in Stockholm in 1948, Röhsska konstslöjdmuseet in 1948, Malmö Museum in 1949, Gummesons konsthall in 1952, Bonniers in New York in 1960 and Tokyo in 1966. Since the late 1940s he was represented at Rörstrand's exhibitions in Stockholm, Copenhagen, London and Uppsala. He participated several times on his own in the Milan Triennale, which resulted in a gold medal in 1948 and an honorary diploma in 1951.
Carl-Harry Stålhane is buried at Norra begravningsplatsen in Lidköping.
