The man who made Scandinavia smile: Bjorn Wiinblad’s eclectic artistry

When defining the 20th century in Nordic interior design, it is easy to sum it up to a mastery of natural materials and minimalist ideals as proposed by the likes of Bruno Mathsson and Alvar Aalto. But during this fuss-free modernist revolution, nonconformists broke through the cracks like flowers through hardened asphalt. Bjørn Wiinblad was one such rogue bohemian. His fondness for folkloric motifs and unparalleled eclecticism set him apart from the rest at a time when minimalism was at its most dominant.

“Artistically, Wiinblad has been a contrary counterpart to typical Danish design,” says Paolo Vietti, the current design manager of Bjørn Wiinblad Denmark. Wiinblad’s opulent style ref lected a rich heritage, tapping into Nordic traditions by focusing on craftsmanship and decorative details. “Always with maximalism as a main driver,” Vietti points out. Wiinblad’s work is instantly recognisable. The smiling faces with pointy noses, the almond-shaped eyes, and the inherent love of lavish colours and patterns. “His designs are full of character,” says Vietti. His imaginative spirit is present in each piece.

While best known for his ceramics, Wiinblad was a polymath in every sense of the word. Constantly reinventing his eccentric artistry through different media, he worked with many materials: metal, glass, and fabrics. “He did a lot of costumes for the ballet, scenography for the opera, posters and illustrations,” explains Vietti, adding that he even redecorated the restaurant at Copenhagen’s Hotel d’Angleterre in 1994.

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Born in 1918, Wiinblad grew up in a political family and began his career as a typographer in 1935, an occupation he despised. In 1988, he spoke to the weekly newspaper Hjemmet about his apprentice experience, saying that “either I dropped all the text on the floor, or I’d spend my time writing poetry or drawing instead”.

It was a rigid environment, which didn’t suit Wiinblad’s artistic nature. According to tradition, apprentices were only allowed to address their superiors informally on the day of their graduation, an occasion marked by sharing a cold beer. “I swore to the other apprentices that I would never address him with the informal ‘you’ once I’d been trained – and that I would never drink beer,” Wiinblad told Hjemmet. He kept his promise. World War II broke out on the day he graduated, taking precedence over protocol.

In 1940, Wiinblad set out on a more artistic path as he began studying at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. In 1943, he began experimenting with pottery, and while he had little talent for shaping clay, he soon found his calling in decorating ceramic pieces. Just as World War II ended, Wiinblad graduated. That same year he debuted with an exhibition in the small Binger gallery in Palægade in Copenhagen, a show that would launch his career as one of Denmark’s most successful artists.

As his star rose, his Danish peers disapproved of his ‘un-Danish’ methods and conduct, which included relying on plenty of assistants and boasting an extravagant lifestyle. And things only got more extravagant when, in 1966, Wiinblad moved into the Blue House – a sky-blue clapboard home nestled on a quiet side street in Lyngby, just north of Copenhagen. Over the years, the house would have a “major impact on Wiinblad’s life,” according to René Schultz, Wiinblad’s old friend and driver. Not only would it serve as the workshop for Wiinblad and the people he worked with, but it was also his home until he died in 2006.

Deceptively unassuming, the house is best described as an “Aladdin’s cave”, according to Schultz. There are visual experiences on every centimetre of the 700-square-metre home. The numerous rooms, corridors and secret nooks behind concealed doorways house a spectacular collection of art and antiques – spanning Chinese porcelain, several first-edition books and even Charles Dickens’ ink pot - nestled alongside Wiinblad’s personal mementoes and eccentric artworks.

The Blue House was far from a quiet artist’s oasis during Wiinblad’s reign. Over the decades, it housed countless fashionable dinners. “He liked small parties, preferably just eight to 12 people,” says Schultz. “Then there was room for everyone to talk together.” Sitting at the table in his dining room was like “an adventure,” according to Schultz. “You can still get a sense of it when you visit the house and experience the atmospheric space,” he continues, describing the emblematic blue tiles covering the walls and ceiling and the glasses, tableware, and cutlery in Bjørn Wiinblad designs which still set the table.

The guestlist often read like a who’s who of the era: Queen Ingrid of Denmark, members of the Iranian royal family, and important ballet dancers such as Vivi and Flemming Flindt, Liza Minnelli, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Erica Jong, to name a few. At the end of a party, Wiinblad would gift the guests unique ceramic products, often with sweet personalised messages painted at the bottom. According to Schultz, when the guests had gone home, Wiinblad liked to go back to the drawing room or the workshop to work, often late into the night. “He always worked and would constantly listen to classical music in his studio at the Blue House while painting or creating, often while wearing a kimono,” he says.

During this time, Wiinblad was one of Denmark’s wealthiest artists. While the collection kept in the Blue House indicates the artist’s financial success, it is underscored by the fact that this was only one of his homes. “He had seven homes which he used as a base when travelling around for his commissions or when he took his friends on long opera and cultural journeys,” says Schultz. Beyond Denmark, he owned properties in Germany, homes in Austria; one apartment in Rome and one in Paris; and – at one time – two apartments in Marbella, in the south of Spain. Every residence housed a studio, but not one television lived among them.

Each home is also said to have contained an identical, bespoke wardrobe due to the artist’s dislike of travelling with clothes. In his dressing room in the Blue House, Wiinblad’s designer ties, silk shirts and numerous handmade Italian shoes arranged by colour all remain untouched. The Blue House was always buzzing with people, if not with guests then simply Wiinblad’s large staff; the painter girls who illustrated figures in the workshop, another who painted in the drawing room, the gardener who swept the leaves, the housekeeper who prepared lunch in the kitchen. “They were all part of his life and the diverse activities that characterised the days in the busy artist home,” says Schultz.

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While he surrounded himself with people and parties, Wiinblad never married and lived alone. That said, the artist is arguably best known for his women. Throughout his career, he created a myriad of lovely ladies, which he incorporated into his designs. But one female face has remained a clear favourite: Eva. “Eva embodies the essence and values of Bjørn Wiinblad’s work and is such an icon,” says Vietti. “The design is extravagant, quirky and rich with colours full of life.” With a wide head and cone-shaped body, Wiinblad’s signature almond-shaped eyes and pointed nose, Eva’s blushing cheeks and tentative smile imbue her with allure.

In 2019, Wiinblad’s grand dame made her grand return to Rosendahl’s permanent collection, with the Danish design house launching a new range of products based on his signature creations. Whether a vase, candlestick or flower pot, Bjørn Wiinblad’s original designs directly inspire each piece. The painterly decorations (ranging from geometric patterns to floral reliefs and printed on glossy-glazed porcelain) are plucked straight from the artist’s vast archive of illustrations and “redrawn,” according to Vietti.

The process of producing each piece always begins with liquid clay pouring into a mould. Next, the small flowers, which sit on both sides of the head, are cast separately and applied by hand. Once all the flowers have been attached to the vase, the product goes through its first round of firing (known as ‘biscuit firing’) to strengthen the material. Once hardened, the vase is dipped in a transparent glaze for that signature glossy finish and fired in the oven a second time. Only after it has been finished with the glaze is the piece decorated.

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Today, all mass-produced Bjørn Wiinblad decorations are drawn by hand in Photoshop. The files are then printed on a special decal film and applied by hand onto the vase. There are six decals for every Eva product – one for the face, three for each section of the hair, one for the dress and a logo on the bottom. Once all the decals have been applied, the vase is fired one final time to transfer the decorations from the decal to the product. It is a lengthy process, with each piece undergoing a great deal of craftsmanship and fidgety handmade procedures to achieve the final design.

Over the years, Wiinblad’s unparalleled figurines have found their way into homes across the globe. These include the home of Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was not just a dinner guest but a fully-fledged Wiinblad fan, as he confessed in 1981: “I love Bjørn Wiinblad and have bought many of his items, which go perfectly with my blue bedroom.” Actress Lily Collins’s Hollywood home – shared with her husband Charlie Mcdowell – is another example of Wiinblad’s widespread impact. The artist’s ceramics populate the couple’s interiors, mixing with other famous Danish designs. “They [Wiinblad’s vases] just make us smile,” she recently told Vogue Scandinavia. “We love them.”

Coming of age during the Great Depression and the Second World War, Wiinblad’s cheerful outlook and infallible positivity might have been a reaction to this dismal period of history. Wiinblad once proclaimed, “I don’t understand why nothing more is being done to cheer people up with colour in everyday life.” It was a task that motivated him throughout his life and one he arguably succeeded at. As Vietti concludes, “I like to think that Eva gives a smile to anyone who looks at her.”