Pendant „Café“, Ole Bent Petersen for Georg Jensen, Denmark, 1981

Description

Ole Bent Petersen (1938-1998) trained as a goldsmith in the workshop of P. E. Boesen in Nykøbing/ Falster. From 1957 to 1959 he was enrolled at the Danish College of Jewellery and from 1959 to 1960 he studied silversmithing and commercial design at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. Since 1960 Petersen has maintained his own workshop „Sølvform” in the center of Copenhagen. Since 1978, he has been affiliated with the Georg Jensen Silversmiths A/S.

During the 1960th and 70th he made his name with very distinctive jewellery inspired by pop art and its use of easily-recognisable everyday objects. Direct representation of common items from every day life, as the subject for items of decorative art, is also the idea behind „Sunshine & Night” unmistakably it is the product of Ole Bent Petersens extraordinary and humorous vision as a designer. The pendants show realistic scenes of cafés or bedrooms such as a chess table for two in front of a window, a coffee table with a chair and a palm tree in the background, and chairs sticked together. The intimately and poetic scenes could be displayed as small sculptures when not being worn.

All manner of styles were combined and forever changing in the cafés and, in best postmodern manner, ingredients with widely-differing qualities were mixed together. This is reflected in Ole Bent Petersens range of jewellery „Sunshine & Night” which he designed for the Georg Jensen company in 1981. The pendants were executed in a bronze alloy and 24 carat gold gilt surface.

In the beginning of the 80th Petersen got a lot of respect for his work. He was asked a for guest lectures at the Danish Academy for Goldsmiths, he was a jury member at the Council of the Danish Goldsmiths and in 1980 he designed in order of the Danish State the insignias for the bishops’ ordination in Greenland. In 1981, 1982, and 1983 he joined the advisory board of “Statens Kunstfonds 3-mandsudvalg for kunsthandvaerk og kunstnerisk formgivning”. He received many awards, including the desired Danish craftsman’s annual award from 1983. His objects were presented in solo exhibitions at the Court Gallery, Copenhagen, 1978-1980, at Galleri Boje in Aarhus in 1983 and at the Danish Museum of Applied Arts in Copenhagen in 1984. The Kunstindustrimusset in Copenhagen devoted to the artist his own exhibition in 1984 and took some works in the permanent collection.

Lit. Udstilling Ole Bent Petersen, Kunstindustrimuseet København, 10 Februar-11 Marts 1984. Thomas C. Thulstrup: Georg Jensen. Silver & Design, Copenhagen 2004, p.165f..
Pricereference: Bruun Rasmussen Auctioneers Bredgade Copenhagen: Freitag, 13.März 1992, Lot 836.