Biography and career Exhibitions Exhibition titles are given where these are known. Much of the original information is from Peter Bird’s biographical account, which has been added to where more material has come to light. Catalogues, leaflets and pamphlets relating to some of the exhibitions mentioned can be found in the V&A archive: V&A AAD 1997/18. All exhibitions are in the U.K unless otherwise mentioned. One-person exhibitions are mentioned, otherwise references are to group shows, which means that Skiöld, at the most, may have exhibited only 2/3 works each time. In the main catalogue, exhibitions of named works are listed where these are known, based on information in exhibition lists and catalogues.1 Skiöld’s first significant one-person exhibition in the U.K was at the Curwen Gallery in 1968. Education and early career Skiöld was born in Stockholm, 18 March 1923. She came from a wealthy family who were partners in a shipbrokers firm: Skiöld & Lundberg AB. She was the eldest of 4 surviving children and had 2 brothers and one sister. She grew up in Stockholm and Saltsjöbaden, an elegant seaside town, 20km South-East of Stockholm, on the outskirts of which, her family had a country house. She attended the Saltsjöbaden Samskola and went on to study at the Tekniska Skolan, Stockholm (now the Konstfackskolan - University College of Arts, Crafts and Design), enrolling on the 1st September 1942. She attended for 2 years in the Lower School, but did not complete her studies in the Higher School (3 years). She specialised in furniture design. She married Wilhelm König in 1945 (b.1916). They were divorced on 20 September 1949. Student years in London 1948-1957 Skiöld arrived in London from Stockholm in early 1948. She studied at the Anglo-French Art Centre, St John’s Wood, London where she became acquainted with the work of the French School and in particular the work of 1 Some references do not contain enough precise information to be of use. artists such as Antoni Clavé. She met Francis Bacon, Edouardo Paolozzi, and David Sylvester, who was a tutor there.2 She was impressed by an exhibition of French lithographs arranged by a Swiss publisher, which featured Ernst and Kokoshka; she also noted Henry Moore’s work and was inspired by Hans Erni.3 She was especially interested in Turner’s watercolours, which she saw at the British Museum. She studied lithography in the evenings at Regent Street Polytechnic with Henry Trivick. In the winter of 1950-51, she studied etching with Richard Beer, also at the Polytechnic. By 1953 her diary contained a number of artist contacts, among them Elisabeth Aslin, Antoni Clavé and Eric de Maré. She was living at 15 George Street, WI. Skiöld kept sketchbooks and produced compositional studies, which she transcribed into the print medium, both in etching and lithography, working figuratively at first. She submitted her work (watercolours) to exhibitions, for instance: Nystedts Konstsalong, Linköping, Sweden, (with Birgitta Roos), 9-23 November 1952, and, The Royal Academy Open Show in 1953.4 In 1954 Skiöld visited Paris and studied drawing at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, Montparnasse, Paris. She already knew Clavé and was influenced by his painterly approach to printmaking, especially his lithographs. She also studied etching, gaining experience in an editioning studio recommended by Clavé.5 In London she was living at 76 Charlotte St. In 1955 she made trips to Austria and Italy and gathered ideas for landscape studies. She moved again to, The Studio, Highwood House, Ogle St. In 1956 she opened a print-studio, in a basement in George St, London, having acquired the lithographic press and stones that had belonged to Vanessa Bell and which had been used by Edward Ardizzone.6 Her student friends came and worked there and they organised small group shows of printmaking work at local venues. She participated in, Landscape Paintings, Ware Gallery, 7-30 January 1956. In October 1956 Skiöld participated in a 2 Additional biographical notes on Skiöld’s early career are from Pat Gilmour’s interview with the artist published in, ‘Artist Observed’, Canvas 11 Vol 4 no 11 March 1970 pp. 36-37. Also recorded in Charles Spencer, Alecto Monographs 9 1973 Editions Alecto p.2. 3 See early biography which was researched extensively by Peter Bird, the artist’s husband, p.15 in, Birgit Skiöld Paintings Drawings Prints Photographs and Artist’s Books 1958-1982 1984 Pimlico Press. The catalogue was produced for the Memorial Exhibition held in 1984 at Camden Arts Centre and Cartwright Hall, Bradford; also at M.O.M.A Oxford in 1985. Bird’s text forms the basis of this account, which has been updated with new information from the V&A Skiöld archive and a range of other sources to include correspondence and Print Workshop Daybooks. Skiöld recalls her early career in an interview by Michael G.McNay, The Guardian Friday 28 January 1968. 4 Newspaper clipping showing Skiöld and fellow students taking work for the Royal Academy exhibition 20.3.1953. She was living in Marylebone at the time. V&A AAD 1997/18 BSMB 1a 5 Op cit. Gilmour, Canvas 1970 6 The workshop was in a basement on the north side of George St between Baker St and Gloucester Place, according to Elizabeth Aslin, a fellow student who worked there. Aslin was later keeper of Bethnal Green Museum. group show at the Ware Gallery, Fulham Road, 13-27 October with her tutor Richard Beer and 3 of his students: Elizabeth Aslin, Rosemary J Foster, and Patricia A Smith. Skiöld became a naturalised citizen according to a Home Office letter dated 23 November 1956.7 She participated in an exhibition, which she probably helped arrange: Swedish Graphic Art, St George’s Gallery Prints, 7 Cork St London W1 21 January - 16 February 1957; work by 10 Scandinavian artists was shown.8 Among the entries in her diary for 1957 is the receipt of a payment of 5gns from Robert Erskine, either for editioning or helping in the organization of exhibitions; she notes, in her diary, the opening of the Senefelder and the Swedish Graphic exhibition at St George’s Gallery Prints (21.1.57). She made trips abroad, to see her family in Sweden, and to Switzerland. In January 1957, with financial support from her family, she bought 5, Westmorland Place which would remain her home and base in London. She applied to register her new business as The Proof Studio 10 October 1957.9 However, during 1957-58 she had to look for new premises for the workshop, possibly because the lease at George Street was about to expire. Skiöld encountered the European concept of the open print workshop during her visits to Paris and there is a suggestion that it was the example of Hayter’s Atelier 17 established in 1927 and which opened again after World War II in 1950, or what it represented, that was the chief inspiration for her idea of an open printmaking workshop, where for a small fee, individual artists could share facilities and enjoy a professional working atmosphere.10 There were few places where young or aspiring artists could make prints in London, other than the art schools, which remained an important though limited resource for young artists and which could not provide commercial editioning services. There were no open studios where individual artists could hire facilities to make their work. Robert Erskine who had opened St George’s Gallery Prints in 1954 had influenced Skiöld. He had gained experience while in Paris, visiting the Lacourière studio and Jacques Frélart, a master printer, and so gained a deeper knowledge of the world of the specially editioned Fine Art print, visiting establishments that worked with artists such as Picasso, Matisse or Bonnard. Erskine encouraged Skiöld in her enterprise.11 7 A letter signed by P.F.Millard 5 July 1956, The Polytechnic 309 Regent Street London W1, states that Skiöld was attending day and evening classes in Lithography, Etching and Painting and asks if she can stay on in Great Britain. William Rees-Mogg also wrote on her behalf on House of Commons notepaper. There is also a letter of support from Edward Ardizzone dated 30.10. 56. See V&A AAD 1997/18 BSMB 1. 8 See review by Stephen Bone, ‘Prints by Swedish Artists, London Exhibition’, Manchester Guardian 26 January 1957.He mentions the expressive handling of the, “brush-drawn aquatints and lithographs by Birgit Skiöld”. 9 In a later account by Peter Bird, based on the artist’s minimal diaries, it seems the starting date of the open workshop running as a business was 1957. In later interviews she usually gave the date of 1958. 10 See Pat Gilmour’s interview with the artist, op.cit. 1970. 11 See James Burr, “Curwen Gallery 5-30 April”, Apollo Vol 83 April 1966 p. 300. Erskine’s pioneering work to revitalise printmaking culture in Britain was mentioned in a BBC Radio review on 15 July 1956. St George’s Gallery Prints, 7 Cork St, London W1, was a place where prints from Paris could be seen. The writer, Myfanwy Piper, went on to say that what is needed “is an atelier where artists and professional engravers can inspire each other”.12 This was very much Erskine’s view. He was also instrumental in encouraging Stanley Jones to run Curwen’s new Artist Studio, having discussed this idea with him while in Paris in 1957.13 In Autumn 1958 Curwen Studio opened at Plaistow to run alongside Curwen Press with which it was associated.