Royal Copenhagen, Johanne Gerber Designs

by Ray on July 4, 2019

The first design here is just so impressive and powerful…and It shouts Mid Century Modern. I have only come across it on this large form (no. 3101) which is 36cm tall. Of course it is from Royal Copenhagen and is a design by Johanne Gerber as part of the BACA series at Royal Copenhagen in the 1960s.

Johanne was one of a group of designers and artists under the direction of Nils Thorsson. This group included Berte Jessen, Marianne Johnson, Ellen Malmer, Kari Christensen, Beth Breyen and Grete Helland-Hansen, Johanne(s) Gerber, Anne Marie Trolle and Ivan Weiss.

Most of the forms were design by Nils Thorsson, but Ellen Malmer also designed about 14 of the forms.

A glazing technique was developed by Nils so that each piece turned out slightly differently, giving them a hand-crafted, hand painted appearance due to the nature of the glaze.

The designs of each of the artists/pattern designers is very different. I think the designs of Johanne Gerber are amongst the boldest – often featuring strong contrasting colours as in this example, and often with complex layering of patterns and textures. All of Johanne’s designs have quite a painterly quality – and often remind me of mid 20th century abstract and expressionist painting.